{"id":59499,"date":"2021-09-25T11:41:57","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T16:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59499"},"modified":"2021-09-25T11:41:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T16:41:57","slug":"renewables-not-so-reliable-as-us-hydropower-plunges-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59499","title":{"rendered":"Renewables Not So Reliable As US Hydropower Plunges 14%"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"ArticleFull_header__11o5_\">\n<h3 class=\"ArticleFull_title__2cUI6\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/commodities\/renewables-not-so-reliable-us-hydropower-plunges-14\">Renewables Not So Reliable As US Hydropower Plunges 14%<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"NodeContent_mainContent__38L44\">\n<div class=\"NodeContent_body__2clki NodeBody_container__1M6aJ\">\n<p>The transition away from hydrocarbons is not a seamless as many hope. The latest data from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=49676#\">Energy Information Administration<\/a>\u00a0(EIA) shows a significant decline this year in hydropower generation amid historic droughts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/drought%20eia.png?itok=beRYItde\" data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/drought%20eia.png?itok=beRYItde\" data-link-option=\"0\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-images image-style-inline-images\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/drought%20eia.png?itok=beRYItde\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"277\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"3bac6f8e-55c0-4369-b38c-fa3a603886fe\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The magical thinking about renewable energy and President Biden&#8217;s calls for the U.S. power grid to be 100% clean by 2035 is a pipe dream.<\/p>\n<div class=\"Advert_desktop__1J5vD Advert_tablet__3QEBr Advert_mobile__1rlLc Advert_placement__1I4yb Advert_align__N0_fw\">\n<aside id=\"in-content-video\" class=\"Advert_verticallySpaced__wnPy3\" data-google-query-id=\"CLy3lpD5mfMCFRNPhwodN64BfA\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/21841313772,21778456762\/zerohedge\/in_content_video_1__container__\">The problem with renewable energy is sustainability. California and states in the Pacific Northwest have found out that out the hard way this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/weather\/fallow-land-plagues-california-farmers-hit-drought\">summer as droughts and back-to-back heat waves<\/a>\u00a0have led to a plunge in hydropower capacity. The region produces a bulk of U.S. hydropower capacity.<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>EIA estimates U.S. hydropower plants will be 14% lower in 2021 than it was in 2020. Hydropower generation in the Northwest, which includes the Columbia River Basin and parts of other Rocky Mountain states, is expected to be 12% lower than the prior year. Hydropower generation in California will be down a shocking 49% in 2021 than in 2020.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/eia.png?itok=eorzFcLK\" data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/eia.png?itok=eorzFcLK\" data-link-option=\"0\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-images image-style-inline-images\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/eia.png?itok=eorzFcLK\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"240\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"afe8725e-1fb3-4dd1-9b83-a45cc697a034\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The dry conditions have reduced water levels across large parts of the Columbia River Basin this summer, drought emergencies were declared in counties across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Some reservoirs in California halted hydropower generation due to declining water levels.<\/p>\n<p>Between March and April, hydropower generation in Washington and Oregon was 10% below the 10-year range. Over the summer, hydropower generation in these states moved back within range. But in California, hydropower generation stayed below the 10-year range as the Edward Hyatt Power Plant at Lake Oroville went\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/weather\/lake-oroville-hydro-power-plant-shut-down-first-time-due-megadrought\">offline<\/a>\u00a0due to low water levels last month.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/eia%20hydro.png?itok=n-1aP-vd\" data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/eia%20hydro.png?itok=n-1aP-vd\" data-link-option=\"0\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-images image-style-inline-images\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/eia%20hydro.png?itok=n-1aP-vd\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"243\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"8d81d869-6283-4509-a921-32220d434ce9\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This summer, California&#8217;s energy challenges show the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/california-begs-more-electricity-shift-renewable-power-leaves-state-reeling\">state&#8217;s aggressive push<\/a> to slash carbon emissions by shifting to renewable energy has its disadvantages&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renewables Not So Reliable As US Hydropower Plunges 14% The transition away from hydrocarbons is not a seamless as many hope. The latest data from the\u00a0Energy Information Administration\u00a0(EIA) shows a significant decline this year in hydropower generation amid historic droughts. The magical thinking about renewable energy and President Biden&#8217;s calls for the U.S. power grid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[220,11566,674,827,4318],"class_list":["post-59499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-drought","tag-hydroelectric-power","tag-renewable-energy","tag-united-states","tag-zerohedge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}