Meanwhile in Germany:

  • Opafi@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Electricity? Like, you use excess power to lift water and generate power from letting it descend when you need power. The latter is generated. Or am I not getting something?

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I know. It never generates more than it consumes so it has negative production overall. Or is this a real-time chart despite saying “past 12 months”?

      • Opafi@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        I think the idea is that it only uses excess energy that would otherwise be wasted to fill it, so it kind of generates energy as it’s essentially filled for free.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Yes, I know. Still, misleading: they show up negative in these power generation charts most of the time and this is supposed to be a cumulative one.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Yes, they are part of the water cycle, sometimes collecting water from a significant area, but usually not. This is the upper reservoir of our largest hydro storage plant:

          Dlouhé Stráně
          Rain is only collected over the area of the reservoir, and it would only fill up a few centimeters on a rainy day. In fact, the water evaporates quicker than that so a lake would never naturally form in this location.

          • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Are all hydro storage like that though? It doesn’t seem too outlandish to think of a hydro storage plant that is also fed by a river

            • Ummdustry@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              I mean, at that point you would just call it a hydro power plant. Pretty much all hydropower doubles as storage due it’s flexibility, but typically don’t bother pumping water back up as it’s a waste of energy (as opposed to waiting for the river to do it’s work)