Our lives revolve around power. Power we rely on to charge
cell phones, light rooms, and heat homes. Without power you wouldn’t be reading
these words right now. (How sad would that be?) Electricity courses through
conduits across the earth, the blood of our modern world. Where blood flows
there must be a heart to pump it. And the hearts of our electric blood are
power plants, making the earth a giant, multi-hearted beast.
Hearts vary across the planet. Small solar panels attached
to a roof, struggling to produce enough power to supply a single home. Large
dams spanning mighty rivers, feeding entire cities with a constant electrical rhythm. Wind
turbines soaring into the sky. Their electric output a slave to the fickle
wind. Coal hearts, burning harvested chunks of the planet and polluting the
earth with each shovelful. Nuclear reactors, consuming uranium to give us power,
but leaving us with radioactive leftovers that we struggle to safely dispose.
These plants range from clean, renewable sources with minimal negative effects,
to others burning a finite resource that poison the air, water, and ground both
near and far.
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Grand Coulee Dam. It produces over 7,000 MW at
peak operation. |
We are lucky. Most of our power comes from a clean,
renewable source. Hydroelectricity supplies most of Washington State with
power. Roughly ¾ of all power generated in the state is from dams. Washington
generates nearly 1/3 of all the hydroelectric power in the country. The next
closest state is Oregon, and it produces less than half that amount.
I really like hydropower. I think it’s a good, long term
source of power. Albeit one with a few flaws that people are working on
solutions for. I realize that not
everyone feels the same way about hydropower and the dams that supply it. It
blocks the natural flow of rivers and impedes the movement of fish. Silt piles
up behind it and at times needs dredging. The river ecosystem both above and
below a dam is forever altered. Raised water levels flooded towns. People were
forced out of their homes and had to retreat to high ground. But I ask you
this. Do you have a solution?
If we tore out the dams what would you suggest we replace
their power generation with? Coal or natural gas plants that burn limited fossil
fuels, and pump CO2 into the air and contribute to global warming?
Nuclear plants that don’t pollute the air, but leave us with barrels of
radioactive waste that remains harmful for thousands of years? I’ve heard a lot
of people complain about the negative impacts of dams, but I’ve not heard many
sensible solutions. Dams remain the lesser of evils.
There are other clean, renewable energy sources available.
Solar and wind power remain underutilized. Geothermal energy remains viable in
areas with geology that allows its use. Tidal generation is available on
certain ocean coasts.
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Even though a wind farm covers large areas of land most of
it remains usable for agriculture or wildlife. |
Wind power is renewable, clean, and relatively harmless.
Some birds and bats die each year when they run into the large blades (it
averages out to a few birds per turbine per year), but it’s just a modern day
evolutionary selector. Its impact to the ground it sits on is minimal. A wind
farm may cover several thousand acres of land, but after construction is
complete, the impacted area is a small fraction of that amount. Another concern
is aesthetics, not everyone likes to see an army of spinning blades in their
panoramas of the landscape. The biggest issue with wind turbines is supply. The
wind doesn’t always blow. Even when placed in an area of fairly constant wind
there will be days with no wind. Wind power requires a backup if the wind is
still. This often takes the form of another operating power plant capable of
taking up the slack when necessary.
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| Part of the solar array at Nellis Solar Power Plant. |
Solar power takes a variety of forms. From photovoltaic
cells (which directly convert sunlight into electricity) to concentrated solar
power (which focus the sunlight and use it to heat a substance and from there
function similarly to other power plants).
Photovoltaic cells are the generic form of solar power.
They’re the panels that can be seen on some roofs or as free standing structures.
They can be a little expensive, but the costs have gone down from their
original prices as well as the efficiency going up. The biggest downfall is
when they work. The sun has to be out. Effectiveness decreases under cloud
cover and they stop working completely at night. Surplus power must either be
stored (in batteries) or an alternate power source must be used during times of
low or no generation.
Concentrated solar power relies on heat, as does most
generated power. A very basic explanation of how they work is as follows. A
field of mirrors (picture one or more football fields) would reflect the
sunlight either onto a single tower and heat a substance to a molten flowing
state (several hundred degrees), or it would reflect on several different pipes
running through the field. This molten substance then is piped through water
heating it until it boils, produces steam, and builds pressure. (At this point
it becomes like almost all other types of power generation.) This steam is then
used to spin a turbine, which spins a generator and produces electricity.
(Hydro power is similar except it uses liquid water to spin the turbine instead
of steam.) This type of solar power has the benefit of being able to continue
working after the sun goes down due to the stored heat in the substance.
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A depiction of the different styles of
concentrated solar power. |
Tidal power relies on tides flowing back and forth to
produce hydroelectric power in ways similar to a dam across a river. Geothermal
power uses heat from the earth at active geological sites to produce steam and
generate power.
Size also remains a factor. Picture Rocky Reach Dam, it
looks pretty big, right? Let’s say the dam and associated electrical equipment takes
up ~100 acres. It also creates a reservoir behind it 43 miles long with a
surface area of 98,000 acres, almost all of it usable for water activities,
irrigation, and other uses. Rocky Reach has a max output of 1300 MW (1 MW is
enough to power 225 to 300 homes). So 1300 MW would power anywhere from 292,500
homes up to 390,000 homes. Wenatchee has a population of ~32,000 people. If an
average household is 4 people that means there are ~ 8,000 homes in Wenatchee.
(Of course I’m leaving out apartments, businesses, etc.)
The Wild Horse Wind Farm outside Ellensburg covers ~10,000
acres and has a max output of 273 MW with 149 wind turbines, enough power for
61,425 to 81,900 homes. It would take nearly 5 wind farms of that size to produce
the power of that one dam.
Nellis Solar Power Plant in Nevada produces 14 MW on 140
acres, roughly the size of Rocky Reach Dam. This output is enough to power
3,150 to 4,200 homes. There would need to be nearly 93 plants of similar size
to produce the same power as that one dam. And it would need to cover an area
of ~20 square miles. Picture the entire city of Wenatchee replaced with fields
of solar panels.
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| A view from the back of Grand Coulee. |
My point to all this is threefold. One, there are lots of
options for producing power that aren’t as environmentally harmful as current methods.
Several options are renewable, clean (more or less), and environmentally
friendly (mostly). Second, almost all power generation is going to have people on
both sides of the argument. People will be wholeheartedly in favor and
vehemently opposed. Third, size is a factor. The fact is some of these options
aren’t viable in all location because of the space necessary.
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