Re: How to build Powerplant african style
In 2008, Switzerland introduced a feed-in tariff to promote the expansion of renewable energy sources. While the law incentivized sources such as wind and solar, the developers of small hydropower projects were the biggest beneficiaries: following passage of the feed-in tariff, 116 small hydropower dams have been constructed across streams all over Switzerland.
Although these small dams don’t flood whole valleys the way large hydropower dams often do, they still fragment streams, prevent fish from moving upstream and, by diverting most of the water out of the channel and towards a powerhouse, leave long stretches of stream with dramatically reduced flow during much of the year. In most cases, they also degrade the aesthetic beauty of a free-flowing stream in a bucolic valley.
And what did Switzerland gain for dotting its beautiful landscape with more than a hundred small dams and fragmented streams? The new small hydropower projects generate 498 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year, less than 1% of the country’s annual generation. In comparison, a project to rebuild an existing large hydropower dam on the Rhine with a new design added more than 400 GWh, nearly equivalent to the generation produced by the 116 new dams.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffopperm ... 9d0397b9d5
Although these small dams don’t flood whole valleys the way large hydropower dams often do, they still fragment streams, prevent fish from moving upstream and, by diverting most of the water out of the channel and towards a powerhouse, leave long stretches of stream with dramatically reduced flow during much of the year. In most cases, they also degrade the aesthetic beauty of a free-flowing stream in a bucolic valley.
And what did Switzerland gain for dotting its beautiful landscape with more than a hundred small dams and fragmented streams? The new small hydropower projects generate 498 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year, less than 1% of the country’s annual generation. In comparison, a project to rebuild an existing large hydropower dam on the Rhine with a new design added more than 400 GWh, nearly equivalent to the generation produced by the 116 new dams.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffopperm ... 9d0397b9d5