[Peak Oil] Dam retrofitting and micro-hydro.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

This is something that's occurred to me. There's 80,000 dams in the United States, most of which are extremely small, and used exclusively for irrigation purposes or navigation, etc. Even some of the large ones are. In all cases, these dams are perfectly capable of producing some electrical power, however, and there are extensive micro-hydro developments in order.

I'm curious if there are any sources for proposals to retrofit all dams in the country enmasse for micro-hydro (or full hydro for larger irrigation dams) purposes, and the costs involved in such a project along with the yield in energy production. This is a cheap way to increase our available power sources, using already completed structures, which will cause less ire with environmentalists who don't want dams built, and shortcut the long lead-time for nuclear reactors.

Furthermore, a lot of our existing hydroelectric facilities use turbines and generating equipment from the early 1900s or 1930s. Certainly there would be potential efficiency gains from replacing this equipment with modern versions which are as efficient as possible in producing as much electricity from a given amount of water? And, again, it would not require even the construction of new dams, simply the retrofit of the existing generating stations at existing hydroelectric dams.

[LadyTevar]

The problem with retro-fixing the dams is that many of them would need drained at least partially in order to get the new equipment in place, which can take several months, plus the time it takes to get the reservoirs refilled to capacity.

Some of the dams also have minor design flaws... such as Hawk's Nest Dam, which was built in 1920-1923. The silt gates had not been opened in decades. When the dam officials tried to open them and let the decades of silt pour through, they discovered that silt gates were shut with ButterFly Valves. For those that don't know them, they're a big circle that rotates around the center point.

Of course, with a few decades of silt in the tubes, the butterfly valves couldn't open, and supposedly one bent trying. The reservoir had to be totally drained and machines brought in to dredge the silt until they could get to the silt gates. Then they had to dig into the silt gates to get to the valves and replace them. Took six months, and another three to get the water up where it belonged.

[phongn]

I'm not sure how easy it would be to replace the generator turbines - they may not have been designed for easy replacement (but rather put into place and the rest of the structure built around it).