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Re: renewable energy



At 8:58 AM -0400 8/10/02, John S. Denker wrote:

A badly-designed dam may lose _flood-control_ capacity
due to siltation. This may cause electricity-generation
capacity to become seasonal. However the presence of silt
in the water does not, per se, change the energy budget of
the dam. Density is the same (if not larger :-), height is
the same, flow is the same ....

A well-designed dam in a favorable site will come into
"equilibrium" with the silt load over timescales long
compared to the coal-exhaustion timescale.

And the 'powers that be' are becoming more aware of the importance
and possibility of limiting siltation by periodic release of silt
laden water (water from the bottom of the lake rather than the 'top'
water that normally flows through the penstocks.