Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire man made 'power storage' lakes

How are they working out? They build a man made lake at a higher elevation than the surrounding rivers. Then they use wind and solar power to fill the lake. During times of darkness or no wind, they release the lake water through turbines to generate power.
I know they're in use in some places but how are they working out? I haven't heard much about them.
I can see that the enviros would fight them just like they'd fight damming a river.

Worlds biggest fish grinder...
And the bullschidt about solar/wind is a lie. The one here in Michigan predates wind & solar power, they pump water up into the reservoir during low demand periods of the power grid and release the water back down when power demand is high.

The one in Bath County VA has been generating since 1985. It wasn't built for the reasons you cited though. it uses power from the grid to pump water to the upper lake during periods of low demand and releases the water during periods of peak demand to generate supplemental power to cover the demand

We've got one here in MO. on Tom Sauk mountain. Several years ago something went wrong during pump back and the levee was overtopped washing away a large section sending a flood down hill and into the Black River destroying a campground and some homes. No fatalities and only a few injuries but something like a billion dollars of damage. This occurred in the winter... if it would have happened in the summer there would have been hundreds of canoeists and swimmers in the river. It is a very popular area for floating and such.

The “Helms project’ in the Sierra mountains of central Calif. Is considered a success.
Two lakes, Courtright at 8,000 feet and Wishon at 7,000 feet.
These are the two lakes I fish on a regular basis.
Courtright is fed by creeks and snow run off from the nearby 10,000 foot mountains.
During peek power demand in the day, water is drained from Courtright through power generating tunnel’s down to Wishon.
During low demand at night, it is pumped back up to from Wishon to Courtright.
Lake levels seem to fluctuate 5-7 feet.
You need to careful leaving your boat beached overnight.

Pac Gas & Electric built the Helms system, east of Fresno CA, went online in 1984. 38 yrs and counting, must work well or they'd have shut it down. I think it's something like 1.2 MW. Like you said, enviro permits are too costly. Thank you Sierra Club. Sooo, Sierra Club, hydro is bad, nuke is bad, solar is ok...but in somebody else's state, Eagle chopper uppers is bad....what would you select for a viable charging device for your electrick veehickle?

Around here we have several “reservoir” lakes that were established in the 1920’s by damming up a couple of river chains to produce power.

We have,
Whiteface Reservoir, about 6000 acres of very dark bog stained water with excellent Walleye fishing.

Island Lake Reservoir, about 8000 acres of lightly stained water with excellent Walleye fishing, but they are somewhat stunted due to the fluctuations of the water table.

Fish Lake Reservoir, about 3000 acres of excellent (big) Walleyes and Crappies.

Rice Lake, just a small pond of 2000 acres with a depth of 13 feet, excellevy Walley lake, if you can navigate the weeds.

Boulder Lake, about 4000 acres of , you guessed it, prop killing boulders, yet outstanding Walleye Fishing.

There are more lakes on this damed river chain, but as you can see I’m a fan of the Power dams around here .

We have two big pump back units on dams on the Salt River reservoir chain totalling around 150 MW. They've been there a while, long before solar and wind were a thing. The concept works fine as long as there is an adequate spread between peak and off-peak power prices. And hydro units catch fire much less frequently than lithium ion batteries.

Great fishing was created there

There's a pump/drain back facility just northwest of Chattanooga Tennessee. It's fenced off, no boating or fishing, since it flushes like a toilet bowl while they're generating. It's been in operation for several years, and seems to work well. The water source for filling it is a big reservoir on the Tennessee river.

An article I read that was the source of my OP question talked about all the wind and solar being used to refill these lakes. None of the above posts are using them so is this article just wishful thinking? If a man made lake doesn't already exist, I can't see the greenies letting any more be built.

TVA has Raccoon Mountain near Chattanooga TN. Like AJ300MAG mentioned, excess electricity during times of low demand is used to pump water up to it, then it's released as needed to generate power as needed. Electricity in the amounts produced by electric companies can't truly be "stored", though some of it can be "transferred" to another form (or sold to another company). The elevated reservoirs are one way of putting excess to use for reserve energy that can quickly be generated at low cost.

The link below has some info on TVA's Racoon Mountain. I don't know how it averages out $-wise but I've always found it interesting.

https://www.tva.com/energy/our-power-system/hydroelectric/raccoon-mountain

Ludington Pumped Storage uses a man-made lake reservoir that can only be filled by pumping water up from Lake Michigan into the reservoir. The reservoir has a nine foot thick clay bottom and the sides are blacktopped. It's decieving to claim that the power comes from windmills and solar, they're all connected to the same grid. In that case a claim could be made that the Ludington plant used nuclear power to fill the lake.

A pump storage facility was proposed on Storm King Mt. near the West Pt Military Academy in New York in the early 70's. Approval was never granted primarily due to its location being in a major spawning grounds for striped bass.

Reservoirs are the best way to store the power produced by solar or wind turbines. GD

I worked in the pump-gen industry for 30 years. Visited the most of the plants listed above for annual conferences. They served a good purpose for peaking in the past and still do today. However the peak energy curve has changed since the huge influx of solar and wind if you're in an area that has a lot of solar/wind. This is especially true in CA where there is now a sheetload of solar plants in central CA, they have basically replaced the energy needed for the peaks for daytime energy use there.

Arkansas has several. I suppose they are successful as they date back to the 1920-1930's and on into the 60's. They have created a lot of acres for fishing, boating and lakefront property. I think most of them are filled naturally by rain and runoff. They can't generate full time being dependent to the water level.

There's a source of literally unlimited power right under our feet. Magma. There are hundreds of places on Earth, including in the US, where hot magma is only a few thousands of feet below the surface. Drill down, insert a web of solid state thermoelectric (Seebeck) generators and you have free, unlimited electricity. Magma can take thousands of years to cool, and magma chambers need not be breached to tap that heat.

It would use the same principle as the radioisotopic generators aboard the Voyager and other spacecraft, but without the radioactivity.

Dams and reservoirs are useful in lots of ways and this is one of them. They provide flood control, water storage, electric power, recreational areas and benefit fish and wildlife. Sometimes they fail and that can be disastrous but properly managed the benefits out weigh the negatives.
The "greenies" have made a religion of "mother earth" and worship it diligently. God gave man dominion over the earth to use for his (His) benefit.