Dr. Lars Schernikau (www.unpopular-truth.com/blog)

When we think of clean energy, hydropower often sits at the top of the list. After all, it’s renewable, seemingly reliable, and emits no direct greenhouse gases during operation. But as with anything in life and in energy… the devil’s in the details. It turns out that hydropower’s reputation as the ultimate clean energy source might be more myth than reality…

I recently wrote a blog post on hydropower that sheds light on some unpopular truths… the kind of truths you won’t hear about in sustainability pitches or clean energy PR campaigns.

Is Hydropower Nature’s “Frenemy”?

At first glance, harnessing the power of flowing water sounds perfect. No burning fossil fuels, no air pollution, just a steady stream of clean energy. But here’s the twist: large-scale hydropower projects often wreak havoc on ecosystems. Damming rivers disrupts natural water flows, affects fish migration, and leads to the flooding of vast areas, sometimes displacing entire communities. The environmental toll doesn’t end with construction… but it continues for decades.

And let’s not forget about GHGs like methane…the potent greenhouse gas that’s believed to be 25 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO₂. How does GHGs come into play? When vegetation and organic matter decompose in the stagnant waters of reservoirs, they emit GHGs like methane. Isn’t that a far cry from the squeaky clean image we’ve been sold?

Reliability Isn’t Always Reliable

We like to think of hydropower as dependable, but generation depends on water availability, which in turn depends on weather patterns. Some countries that heavily rely on hydropower are finding themselves scrambling for backup energy sources during dry seasons.

Here’s the irony: in a world increasingly affected by changing weather patterns, hydropower’s reliability diminishes. That’s not the kind of limitations we would expect for our energy future…now is it?

The Unpopular Truth About “Clean” Energy

In my detailed article on Hydropower I make one thing clear: no energy source is perfect. Every option comes with trade-offs, and hydropower is no exception. What we need is an honest conversation about those trade-offs instead of the promises of a net-zero utopia.

Hydropower has a role to play, but we should approach it with eyes wide open, acknowledging its limitations and environmental impact.

So, where does that leave us? Should we be rethink what we call “clean.” Is hydropower really as sustainable as we want it to be?

What do you think about hydropower? clean energy saviour or overhyped disruptor? I would like to hear your feedback.

Full article here: The “Unpopular Truth” about Hydro Power

Ps: feel free to subscribe to my blog and keep questioning, keep learning, and keep pushing for transparency in energy discussions.

From MasterResource

By Kennedy Maize

“The Monterey County Board of Supervisors held an emergency meeting Friday morning to discuss the fire. County Supervisor Glenn Church told KSVW-TV, ‘There’s no way to sugarcoat it. This is a disaster, is what it is’.”

The world’s second largest lithium-ion battery storage facility broke into flames last week (Jan. 16) some 77 miles south of San Francisco at Vistra Corp’s Moss Landing gas-fired power plant site, prompting an evacuation order of site workers and some nearby areas. The fire initially began to subside but flared up again the next day.

Firefighters decided to let the fire burn itself out rather than trying to extinguish it. A Monterey official told Reuters, that “the best approach, according to fire staff, is to allow the building and batteries to burn.” Officials said the fire finally burned out on January 20.

CNBC reported on Friday that about 40% of the building has been consumed in the fire, whose cause remains under investigation.

The Vistra plant has 750-MW of power storage capacity, or 3,000-MWh of electric delivery, providing backup power to solar-heavy Oakland-based Pacific Gas and Electric.

When Texas-based Vistra completed the construction of the project in August 2023, it claimed Moss Landing battery storage was “the largest of its kind in the world.” Since then, it has been eclipsed by the Edwards & Sanborn Solar + Energy Storage site in Kern County, Calif., a joint Air Force and local utilities project at 875-MW and 3,287-MWh.

The Monterey County Board of Supervisors held an emergency meeting Friday morning to discuss the fire. County Supervisor Glenn Church told KSVW-TV, “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. This is a disaster, is what it is.”

The fire has also generated broader political interest. California Assemblywoman Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) issued a statement as the news of the fire spread. “I am deeply concerned and have serious questions about the safety of this battery energy storage plant. I will be looking for transparency and accountability for why this happened again at Moss Landing. I am exploring all options for preventing future battery energy storage fires from ever occurring again on the Central Coast,” she said. She is chair of the California Legislative Central Coast Caucus.

Prior Problems

Renewable Energy World reported that the Moss Landing battery array has a checkered history, noting that the fire broke out in the earliest, 300-MW, section of the plant. In September 2021 a software problem

caused a heat suppression system to activate and douse three 100 MW racks of batteries…,Fire crews were called, but Vistra ultimately determined there was no fire, nor did the incident cause any harm to outside systems or any personnel.

In February 2022, in the 100-MW Phase II building next door, a “second, nearly identical incident involving the early detection safety system occurred…”

California’s Big Bet

California is leading the nation in battery energy storage. No current figures are available, as the sector is growing so fast it is difficult to keep up. At the end of November 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration, California had 7.302 GW of battery storage, followed by Texas at 3.167 GW. No other state had 1 GW of battery storage. BloombergNEF reported that California saw 8,171-MW of storage from 2021 through 2023.  

That makes California a test bed for battery storage, including increasing information about fires. Lithium-ion batteries are well-known for catching on fire and utility-scale fires get a lot of attention. Bloomberg reported last week,

After several fires at large battery installations—including a 2022 blaze that briefly shut down California’s Highway 1—developers switched battery formulas so that cells are less prone to overheating.

A Prior Fire

Last May, a fire broke out at L.S. Power’s 250-MW Gateway Li-ion project near San Diego. The fire prompted evacuations and road closures in the vicinity of the plant not far from the Mexican border. The fire burned for 11 days.

The Palo Alto-based Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) tracks grid-scale battery energy storage systems worldwide. In a 2023 paper, EPRI said, “Over the last 4 years, there have been on average 10 such failure events annually, even as global battery deployments have increased 20-fold.” [1]

[1] EPRI’s research consists of:

•  Evaluation of battery cell and system failure characteristics to inform safety mitigation technologies;
• Development of incident response guidelines;
• Stakeholder safety training and education.

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This was originally posted at The Quad Report, the blog site of electricity expert Kennedy Maize. It has been slightly updated and edited.