'Water is stored at 636 metres (2,087 ft) above sea level in Marchlyn Mawr reservoir. When power needs to be generated, water from the reservoir is sent down through the turbines into Llyn Peris, which is at approximately 100 metres (330 ft). Water is pumped back from Llyn Peris to Marchlyn Mawr during off-peak times. Although it uses more energy to pump the water up than is generated on the way down, pumping is generally done when electricity is cheaper and generation when it is more expensive. '
(Facepalm) - so for all that colossal effort and expense, in the final analysis it doesn't actually generate any electricity at all - just shuffling the megawatts around so there's spare capacity for when people all boil their kettles at the same time during ad breaks. This f*ing culture... Difficult to see how it could be any help at all during a period of energy decline.
'There are, no doubt, some “back to nature” types within the “green” movement who welcome the destruction of industrial civilisation which an instant shutdown of fossil fuelled electricity generation would involve.'
Bit of a caricature here, but the way capitalism has locked us into growth-at-all-costs pretty much guarantees that this will be the eventual outcome. No gradual transition, no long-term phasing out and powering down to live within ecological limits and the capabilities of human (and possibly animal) labour. No, there's a gun pointing at everyone's head and a madman shouting 'work harder'!, 'just one more push!', 'we can do it if we all pull together!', and the whole economy will judder along frenetically until one day it... just doesn't any more.
I would very much welcome the demise of industrial civilisation, for the good of people as well as the living world, but can't really begin to imagine what kind of horrors this would cause were it to happen overnight. Yet I'm not seeing any serious attempts to steer away from this disastrous course, at least not anywhere close to being implemented. This must be why people describe industrial civilisation as a suicide pact... except that implies some kind of choice in the matter.
I hope you've all got your bug-out bags ready! Some limited capacity for TLN refugees (preferably skilled) on the highland farm in Scotland where I'm now working, though I can't promise a 'back to nature' idyll from the start... DM me before t'interwebs go down
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