This Dam Makes Enough FREE Energy To Run A City
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- Hydroelectric Dams are vast and enormously complex pieces of infrastructure. However, the way they create renewable energy is comparatively simple! Take something high up to give it potential energy. Drop it a certain height to convert that potential energy into movement or kinetic energy. Use that kinetic energy to turn a turbine to generate electricity. And do all of that in the most efficient way possible. Bingo! Tucked away in the Mountain Resort of Revelstoke, a few hundred kilometres East of Vancouver is BC Hydro's enormous 2.8 Gigawatt dam, which first opened in 1984. Robert stepped inside the concrete behemoth to see if Hydropower really is as simple as it sounds..!
0:00 7.8 MILLION Homes
0:45 Welcome to Revelstoke, Canada!
2:39 Boggles the mind!
3:18 Simple in theory
4:00 Extracting Power from the Penstocks
6:20 Big Snow, Big Storage
7:20 MASSIVE Hydraulics
8:12 Very VERY Loud
10:00 What's the impact?
10:44 Canada's First Nations
11:24 The Powerhouse
12:45 100 years old
13:20 The Generator!
13:56 What's next?!
14:58 500,000 Volts!
16:40 3% of Coal
17:05 Concluding thoughts
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#CleanEnergy #renewableenergy #ElectricVehicles #EVs #hydropower #canada #vancouver #britishcolumbia #turbine #generator #renewables #engineering #physics #sustainability - Наука та технологія
I love how genuinely excited Robert is.
Remember, the British call what's a hill in New Zealand, a mountain, so this combo of real mountain, real lake is quite a bit for our Englishman to take in....
seemed a bit much, didnt you think ? im not taking away anything from the engineering of the dam but still.
Most of us would been the exact same.
@@sheik9956 nope, I'd have been just as excited to see it. There nothing like massive projects. You can feel the gravitas when you're at them. You might be into technology but this is engineering.
He's "revel-stoked." LOL. Pun 911.
It's one thing to bring renewable energy stories to the masses, but it is quite another to make them both interesting and inspiring. I genuinely appreciate the obvious care that goes into editing and producing this content. Clean energy production is one of the great challenges of our time, and it's clear through your phenomenal attention to compelling and informative story telling that you recognize the gravity of the role you play in bringing these stories to your dedicated viewership. Another episode to be proud of, well done!
Great video, but I have to rant about units: at 1:56 you say "one cubic meter of water dropping 1 meter downwards produces 1 kilowatt of electricity". No! it is 9.8m/s^2 * 1000 kg * 1m = 9800 kilojoules or 0.0027 kWh. Kilowatts are a measure of power. If you mean energy its kilojoules or kWh. Energy = power * time.
FYI ... Hydroelectric generation in Scotland started early in the 20th century and is one form of renewable energy. It was kick-started by the need for power to drive aluminium smelting plants in the Highlands. This led to the construction of the Laggan dam and hydroelectric system in 1934.
Currently in Scotland, around 5000GWh of electricity from hydropower are produced every year; that’s enough to power roughly half of Scotland’s homes. This success is set to continue now that the Scottish Government has identified sustainable hydropower as a key part of Scotland’s lower carbon future. Source SEPA
Yes I’m in Highland. There are loads of hydro dams, but much smaller than that Canadian one. Most were built in the 50s and 60s
Except that hydro dams are intrusive and environmentally and scenically damaging. More efficient use of power might be a rather better investment in many cases.
Incredible stuff! From England, and I honestly had no idea of the scale of hydro power in Scotland. Scotland really is the renewable power house of the UK.
The one at Kinlochleven has been operating since 1909!
The quality of production of this video, combined with Robert's peerless presentation, and a fascinating subject: lovely work :)
A bit too much camera movement. They’re trying too hard in every shot. 😅
A shout out to whoever does the *music/editing* in the Fully Charged videos. Always a great benefit to showcasing the content.
Yes, but he is speeded up in the cafe.
I couldn't agree more.. especially in a time full of annoying shorts, reels and TikTok videos videos annoying music
As a Canadian I want to thank you for showing off some very important infrastructure in a very honest ans sincere way talking about how it has, is and will impact our environment and First Nations. Great Job Robert (and team)!
Little did I know when I casually clicked on a video with the bloke who was Kryten enthusiastically jabbering about electric cars, that years down the line I would be religiously watching that channel. And even though there are new (bloody excellent) presenters who have joined down the line, there's still a joy in seeing Robert giving an enthusiastic puppy a run for its money for sheer energy levels. That's before I even compare the production values (Go silent team in the background!)
Just before Robert said massive. I auto-completed to mahooosive in my head. 😁😁😁
A fantastic episode, more of the like please, I get a thrill from large industrial spaces like that!
Jessie does a great job of explaining the operation of the Hydro plant and the obvious level of cleanliness is testament to the care taken in maintaining the facility.
As someone who worked on the construction of this dam and powerhouse from, start to finish, I'd like to thank you for the way you have presented your video. It was very enjoyable to look back and see what was accomplished.
You know an industrial facility is big when you see adult tricycles with baskets parked all over. Those are for the maintenance staffers- they need to be able to carry their tools from one job to another and tricycles are often the best way possible to do that.
Yes, I used to work for a chemical corporation, and the maintenance works did exactly as you say.
Serious question: are they electric? 😁
@@EleanorPeterson They normally run on carbs, like regular bicycles.
If anyone's wondering: 7:22
Robert, I would like to invite you to come and visit Quebec. Revelstoke is great and set in a wonderful setting however, If you want to see hydro electric power on a large scale, we have something to show you. Just one of our installations up north produces upwards of 42 TWh of clean electricity yearly. And we are supplying New-York.
Let me know if you want to visit, I can arrange something.
And BC is supplying Washington, Oregon,Idaho and California.....
A very interesting video, especially as a resident of BC! Fun fact: a friend of mine owns The Modern Bakeshop and Cafe! I have vague memories of recommending it to the FC team a while back when I heard they were coming here.
I took the Revelstoke Dam tour a few years ago: it's a damn big dam! I also drove up to Mica Dam 'cause I'm weird like that.
I hope you took all the dam pictures you wanted 👌😂
@@apparentlynot1stLeonchubbs Invoking my inner Walter White, you’re god dam(sic) right!
We should be doing more of this in England. All I hear from people who are against renewables is, "but what about 'battries'? It's just as bad to make them" I say that we don't need batteries, we need 'storage' ..
How about doing more to improve the renewables in this county, sitting down with the department heads who can actually move things forward so we are more self reliant.
Great shows, really well put together and fantastically informational, I just always think that it's the government who need to be watching this show and shows like it and the presenters hitting our government hard over moving forward now so the UK is future proofed.
When I was a child, a whole lot of decades ago, the family went to a hydro electric dam and took the tour. It wasn't as big as this one but it was very, very impressive. Like everything else in humanity it's not free and it's not 100% free from environmental issues but they are much less than a lot of methods of electricity production and mostly come from the building in the first place.
This one is immense and beautiful.
As others have said, it's grand seeing this and seeing Robert so enthused.
So pleased you came to visit us here in Canada. We have many examples of hydro electric power ( Niagara falls and Quebec amongst them). Nice to see them mention the rebuilding of the damaged relationship between the indigenous community and the powers that be as today is truth and reconciliation day and the true horrors suffered by these amazing people is only just coming to light now after decades of cover ups and denials ☹️
Being a Brit I don't know the background is there a resource you could point me too?
Niagara Falls is different to most of the other hydroelectric power projects because it isn't a dam. Instead water is taken from above the falls into constructed tunnels, passes through turbines to generate electricity as what happens in a dam, and then the tunnels continue to let the water exit below the falls.
An unfortunate side effect of producing power this way is that the mist coming from the falls is greatly reduced as the amount of water going over the falls has been reduced. If you look at very old pictures of the falls one may see that there is much more water creating much more mist, which in my opinion, made it look more impressive. Before it was difficult to see the falls even through a small portion of the mist but today one may look through all of the mist and still see the falls. Since I have been there at least a couple more tunnels for electricity production have been opened so I'm assuming that water flow, and the mist, would be even less now. On the other hand, since there is much less water going over the falls, the speed of rock erosion at the edge where the water goes over might have been lessened.
@@gingernutpreacher Canada is an amazing country. Wealthy, safe, tolerant, and remarkably free. But the history of European colonization wasn’t the best.
🤗👍 DAM BIG PROJECT 😂FULLY CHARGED 😁😎💚💚💚
@@ScrapKing73 but how much was it the USA I know one of the insurable actors was giveing Indians guaranteed land my original question was what happened with the dam were they just told we are building a dam suck it up?
If you want to see a large scale hydro system that dates back decades, have a look at the Snowy Hydro system in Australia. Not as many gigawatts but a lot of tunnels. But also have a look at Tasmania, because the entire island is powered by wind and hydro except in drought.
Long time born here BC resident who still much appreciates the fact that we actually had political leadership back in the 50's and 60's that got stuff done and wasn't bogged down by endless lawyers and 'rights' issues. We have all enjoyed the benefits, including those with the rights. Not mentioned in this video was the fact that these dams were also built as part of flood control, not just for hydro. Portland Oregon on the same Columbia used to get severely impacted by huge river floods.
These Canadian dams also greatly increased the dependable capacity of Grand Coolee during dry water years. This is because of the major water storage capacity added to the system. Small hydro cannot do that.
Great to see a video from my province! Personally I'm very proud of the fact that we're nearly exclusively powered by zero-emissions hydro power; it is not zero-impact, but it's certainly a lot better than burning fossil fuels. We're very well-positioned to aggressively reduce carbon emissions in the coming years by switching to EVs and heat pumps which will both benefit from being fed from clean electricity.
Of note is that in spite of its gargantuan size, Revelstoke is actually only the third-largest dam by peak output (until they install the 6th turbine) and second-largest by annual energy output, with the WAC Bennett on the Peace River generating nearly twice the annual output of Revelstoke.
They briefly touch on it in the video, but the majority of BC's hydroelectric generation is provided by *multiple* dams on a small number of rivers (Peace River and Columbia River). While this doesn't entirely eliminate the ecosystem disruptions of putting a hydroelectric dam on a river, it does reduce the overall impact since adding a second or third dam to a river that's already got one does not cause as much overall disruption as damming a whole new otherwise-pristine river. The additional dams are on a path that's already impacted for fish migration, and you also don't need to flood nearly as large an area as only one upstream dam requires a large reservoir for water storage and flood control and the downstream dams can either be entirely run-of-river or have only very small dams, resulting in less overall flooded area.
It's important to be realistic and pragmatic about power generation and its impacts, and to recognize that _all_ forms of generation have environmental impacts and the choice isn't between "have impacts" by building a power plant and "not have impacts" by not building it, but between the relative impacts of the available sources of power we choose to build and use. If a hydroelectric dam is displacing or replacing fossil fuel generation somewhere it is inarguably a win in my books, and it has some very valuable storage and dispatch characteristics that means it complements solar/wind very well.
Our provincial neighbour to the east currently gets nearly all of their power from fossil fuels, and if BC can export an excess of hydroelectricity to other locations like that with less plentiful hydro resources then it means overall emissions go down substantially.
Avoiding as much climate impact as possible is going to require aggressive electrification of things that currently use fossil fuels (transportation and heating, especially), which will require more electricity. I'd much rather it come from a hydro plant than a natural gas plant, supplemented with whatever wind and solar we can install in our rainy, mountainous province.
What an absolutely superb episode!! Amazing subject matter, brilliantly shot. The production value of FC has definitely increased. Bravo
I really hope dams are now being built in a way that doesn't damage river ecosystems like not letting freshwater fish move upriver for migrations. That's pretty much the major environmental problem dams cause.
Hydro dams have also had dramatic impacts on local nature, the river and any fish migration. They are now suffering in droughts (Like the modest Hoover dam)
Absolutely amazing.
We have a few in the U.K., but we have no where near the vastness of space and the geographical terrain for infrastructure like that.
What if made a mountain range and teraform the earth..I'm joking
But what if? The Russians used nukes to stop a methane leak once
I’ve kayaked on that reservoir. We were able look down most of its length, and see we were the only people on the water that day. Beautiful moment.
People don’t realize how much water is in this system. The lake is more then 100km long.
There are indeed some good coffee shops in Revelstoke, and some very fine baked products.
I Love our country, Canada is so beautiful!
The amazing thing is that there are 14 hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River from the headwaters in British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean on the coasts of Oregon and Washington. One individual drop of water may generate electricity 14 separate times. (Possibly more if it originates in one of the tributaries upstream from Mica that also has a hydroelectric dam itself.)
and fish are guaranteed to never make it upstream
@@thijskrugers158 Almost all of these dams have fish ladders - salmon make it to their spawning grounds.
There is a documentary made in BC in 1964 about the Columbia river treaty dams called "Action on the Columbia" you should check it out on you tube
A great video again Robert & team. Hydro electric power is a great source of reliable continuous green energy. There’s a lot of Hydro power in Scotland, but would be good if the UK investigated and invested more into it. The Severn Tidal barrage has been a potential plan for decades, and whilst it does have a lot of environmental considerations on it’s impact to wildlife, it would potentially supply up to 5% of total UK power - imagine that! How many fossil fuel stations could that replace. Plus it provides predictable and reliable constant power.
Canada's Dam is the biggest I've seen.
Canada: Now you know why the Beaver is our national animal
Thanks for visiting Canada Robert and team!!! Lots of love 🥰🤗😄 Doug from Toronto
Amazing episode, make me as a resident of BC proud. Jesse, awesome knowledge and communication skills
Really interesting video, Robert! I very much enjoyed the questions you asked and your excitement at visiting the facility. Thank you for sharing.
Just down the road in Sandon is the oldest operating hydroelectric power plant, first started generating power in 1897 and still producing today. Revelstoke Dam is huge but Mica Dam makes it look like a scale model of a Hydro Dam
I visit the dam 2 years before, beautiful place
If you wan't to organize a show in eastern America, may I suggest Montreal, Canada. They use Hydro(Quebec) electricity, wind turbine and do R&D on batteries.
Great video. I think an episode on a potential Severn Barrage and tidal lagoons in the UK would be great. It seems mad we have the potential to produce 20% of UK power demand from a tidal barrage and it seems dead in the water as an idea here.
tidal power is massively massively difficult... the damage cause by flooding a small ish valleyin canada is nothing compared to blocking off the severn.. while keeping boats and birds and fish happy. plus this place last 100 years.. add salt water and that will be much less than half. The severn is a pipe dream.
Huge dam! The scale really is enormous, and makes me feel proud and hopeful for humanity.
Another awesome FC vid, keep 'em coming guys!
Watching Robert is like watching a kid in a toy shop! 😂
ROBERT! This was an incredible episode. Thank you. I live relatively close to this dam, and would have loved to meet you. Next time! And yes, BC does dams well. Check out our Site C. Still in production. You could do a great follow up show on that.
Thank you Fully Charged for educating me on a massive renewal energy solution in my home province of BC. Very interesting and happy to hear the electricity used by my family and I for our 3 EVs is coming from clean and green sources. Always enjoy the show. Regards Donald Balanecki
What a great video! Thank you Fully Charged for featuring this very impressive hydroelectric dam.
These are my favourite type of fully charged shows
Pretty sure lots of NYC power already comes from a Dam in Quebec, Canada.
Actually, a lot comes from Churchill Falls, Labrador, which if I recall is 8.3 GW.
@@davidbutt406 I think you are right. Hydro Quebec, however controls that dam and it is highly controversial. The contract is up for renewal pretty soon though.The 5,428-MW Churchill Falls generating station on the Churchill River in Newfoundland and Labrador is the second largest hydroelectric power plant in Canada and the 10th largest in the world.
@@davidbutt406 lot came from James Bay, with LG complex, not a lot from Labrador
Two things: There are thousands of old dams (for flood control, old mills, navigation) that have no hydro. A major untapped resource. 2. It is possible to have hydro without dams, using a sort of mill-race system (canals or pipes which hug canyon walls, until they reach a certain height above the canyon floor). In the 1800s and early 1900, this was done all over the western U.S.
Great show. Loved the photography, and the content. One of the best, Video's quality wise on the channel and great to see round a hydroelectric power station.
Love your enthusiasm for this and impressed by the benefits compared to the costs
So great to hear you ask about First Nations and for the response that didn't shy away from mistakes made in the past
Great stuff. I really love these infrastructure videos.
Outstanding civil engineering, Robert!! Thank you for this tour! Peace
Great video. Good to see Robert exploring BC, hopefully your crew can do more next year as well. As a Canuck who has lived all my life in Ontario I hadn't visited BC until I made a couple of trips in the last ten years, including a train trip back to Toronto from Vancouver. That four day trip really made me appreciate the scale of this country. Then I did the eastern train trip from Halifax just for balance (only 1.5 days in that case).
The tour of the hydro dam reminds me of visiting the Beck facility in Niagara Falls as a kid, although your tour was much more detailed.
Not to be negative, but keep in mind that not only Alberta but BC produces (and will be exporting) oil and gas. During the first trip I also visited Alberta, and travelling around I realized how important oil and gas (and even coal) was and still is to the region.
CBC just posted a video about the wood pellet industry in BC supplying pellets to Drax in the UK. Appears that BC they have started to use whole trees, not just sawmill waste.
I thought of the tours they used to give at Adem Beck in the Falls as well. 🤗
Great video congratulations. I was fortunate to visit the Shawinigan facility. They are making hydro electricity since 1901. Those dam can last a long time. We are fortunate to have hydro power in Canada.
Dear Robert, love your show and enjoy it for many years now. It was you to get me (an old petrolhead) in electric mobility (am on my 2nd e-car). I also used to be a big fan of hydropower. Of course it can be done in the ocean too, but it is mostly done in rivers (I guess also due to the long time, those facilities can be used and the offshore technic is still not "worldwide standard"). Talking to a biologist specialized in rivers (don't know the English term, sorry), I understood, that the two most serious problems running a turbine behind a wall in a river are that rivers need a bed out of cobbles and other debris to run on. That "moving floor" is stopped at the wall. What happens downstream is, that without cobbles and stuff, the river deepens into its bed and - over time - creates an ever deeper canyon. So, here in Bavaria, the guys taking care for our Lech river (a formerly wild and sometimes destructible alpine river, nowadays tamed by more than 20 dams) decided, it is money well spend to help the cobbles over any dam. Secondly, it seems to be very hard to teach all creatures living in rivers (esp. new born fish) not be enjoy the feeling of being sliced up by turbine blades. All detour river extensions, at least to my knowledge, do not really help. Still, in comparison - a great technology!
I know that the 1m3 water 1m down = 1kW is defanitely wrong. First, energy is kWh not kW. Common mistake (too common) but wouldve expected better here. But especially the 1m3 (1000kg, ≈10.000N) over 1m distance = 10.000J or 10kJ which equates to about 3Wh or 0,003kW hours at 100% efficiëncy.
Yes, i picked that up too. Robert is a great presenter but they could do with a engineer bod fact checking someimes.
Glad you made a visit and can't wait for the live show in Vancouver next year!
It’s a phenomenal facility and I’m very thankful for it, but something that does need to be highlighted is that a lot of ancestral lands a first nation people (native americans)has been flooded for these dams, often against their wishes, erasing entire villages. Also salmon spawning ground above have been cut off, causing a major effect on the natural world surrounding this facility many many miles upstream. Also the inundating of that land actually releases a fair amount of CO2, as does the enormous amount of concrete used, of course it’s much less than a coal power plant or gas for that matter, but it’s something that we shouldn’t ignore.
So in short, technically these dams however fantastic, They are probably the best way to deal with intermittent power sources like wind and solar, but as anything they do have a cost. And the best way to mitigate that cost is to use less power to begin with.
Yes, and he did address some of thag. But the US and Canada are STILL going about building energy infrastructure through first peoples lands to this day... Pipelines definitely are not a better evil!
@@patreekotime4578 i’m not saying that pipelines are any better, I just think it’s important to be aware that these things also have a cost like anything in this world.
This dam and all the others on the Columbia River system would probably never get built in the modern era. The endless armies of lawyers fighting over rights and environmental issues would be similar to what getting a modern nuclear power plant built faces. I am so grateful to the lights being on because in the 'bad old days' of British Columbia stuff actually got done and I've noticed the indigenous people have kind of benefited from having power too.
@@jimlambrick4642 of course people have benefited, but if someone were to flood your house and land and displace you without any compensation.
Should we just ignore that fact? Yeah I didn’t think so either.
But I think it’s fantastic that we have these things, The alarm for clean plentiful power as well as basically endless water supply in time where water is becoming in scarcer resource every day. What’s the problem with acknowledging that these things have also done some harm…
It doesn’t always have to be black and white there is almost always some grey area. Ignoring that is just propaganda.
@@FreekHoekstra Black-and-white thinking is legit the source of the world's evil.
I've been to that dam! I think here in NZ, hydro is around 70% of our energy production. Only going to decrease though, no way any new dams will be built. Just to put some perspective on hydro vs solar, this dam is a10th the output of the biggest hydro powerstation, and is yet bigger than any solar farm in the world.
"Horses for courses." There's not much potential to generate hydroelectric power at home ... but solar ...
Robert, I also share your interest in old technology. It's engineering that's been tried and tested. What amazes me is Jay Leno's 1909 Baker electric car story. If you haven't already seen it, check it out there's a video on UA-cam. We had the technology and inferstructure to accomodate the powering of this transportation over 110 years ago, and then wasted that knowledge. Complete madness!
This is a fantastic channel and very educational. It's a scandal that the politicians in the UK, can't or won't grasp the situation and make the country a lot more energy sufficient, with subsides for electric vehicle purchases, also grants for residential solar installations and more equal bi - directional payment methods legislation.
You should go in Radisson Quebec Canada with the LG 2 ( La grande 2) it's much bigger and was the biggest dam build in North America. 18 turbines +8 if I remember, was 52 floor building tall and 300 km or dam around the site !
Revelstoke is but one of the many huge dams in British Columbia
@@bradjames6748 Which province produces the most electricity?
Quebec is by far the leading province for hydroelectric power generation in Canada. In 2020, approximately 195.08 terawatt hours of electricity had been generated from hydropower in the country's South-Eastern province. British Columbia followed at 63.24 terawatt hours of hydropower generation that year.
You should come visit Hydro Quebec and see their facilities that will actually power NYC and their research on micro renewable grids and battery technology
Great job on this video. Informative and of course excellent photography.
He looks so excited on that dam... I really loved to see what his expression would be if he came to see our Itaipu dam. =D
The US build about a dozen pumped hydro storage facilities in the 70s. They were typically built next to nuclear plants, with the idea that the plant runs at a constant rate and the pumped hydro takes care of the peaks and valleys of demand. A single pumped hydro plant stores about as much energy as every single battery on the US grid today, combined.
Grid battery storage is a tremendous waste of time and money. Just dig a hole on top of a hill and pump some water up there!
Cool! You made it to Canada,welcome mate!
Amazing. Thanks for creating content like this.
Lovely massive engineering reminded me of something. "They're waiting for you Robert, in the turbine chamber rrrr rrrr. "
Great episode guys!!
Terrific information :) thanks for sharing...I drive through Revelstoke once a year and haven't stopped before...next time I'll take a peek at the dam :) Cheers
Huge dams like that have a massive effect on fish,birds,forests,evaporation,aquifer recharge,sediment flows,natural flooding,coastal estuaries and river system biodiversity in general
I didn't know that - One cubic metre of water dropping one metre is equivalent to 1 kw! Learn something new every day!
The joy of metric! Everything is so simple and logical.
Actually, this isn't true. 1 m³ of water is 1000 kg. 1000 kg elevated 1 m is 9810 Joule (1000 kg * 9,81 m/s² *1 m).
9810 Joule per second is 9810 watts = 9,81 kW.
mgh right? 1000*9.8*1 joules.
Also the typical confusion of energy and power needs to be considered, so we need to factor in TIME. One cubic metre of water falling one metre in one second = 9.81kW of energy. It would need to continue falling for just over 6 minutes to produce 1 kWh of power. The Revelstoke Dam discharges 2,125 cu metres of water every second, producing a maximum of 2,480 MW of electricity, The height of the dam is 175 metres, but the head of water is likely to be significantly less. Let's assume 150 metres, So each cu metre is producing approx 1 MW of electricity. If the dam was 100% efficient it would produce 2.9 MW of electricity, suggesting overall efficiency at about 85 %. That is not the same as capacity factor, which is how much it produces in one year, vs the amount it could theoretically produce running at maximum capacity all the time. . For this dam the figure provided is about 33%.
@@jockmoron I agree, kW is a rate, so the units don't make sense there. I think getting on with the GD energy transition is the important thing, and I love FC for energizing us on the way! But errors like this do stick out and annoy a bit.
Great seeing Robert and Company on this side of the pond!
Thank you Robert. Unfortunately, there is another mostly unknown downside for hydroelectric dams- and that is methane emissions from organic matter accumulating in the reservoir and breaking down without oxygen. The problem is more severe in warm climates, so maybe in BC the emissions are not too bad. But still, it should be taken into consideration in the life-cycle GHGs emission. A similar thing happened with natural gas, when people are impressed that it emits ~half of the CO2 coal emits per kWh produced. But when you add up the natural gas life-cycle methane emissions, you find that on average natural gas is as bad as coal from a GHGs perspective.
presumably that's a one-time emission though? it's not like it keeps happening once the flooded ground is flooded. otherwise you'd say the same of every lake.
This was a fantastic episode. What amazing photography!
I really enjoyed this episode, thanks!
Rly good, informative, positive vid - thx a lot for making it.
Absolutely loving the content!!
Power, silent and clean. Thanks
Not as clean as Hydro would like you to believe. The backed up water produces huge amounts of methane gas. In this dams case the change to the local ecosystem completely disrupted the snow patters. There are pictures of crews living in accommodations completely covered with snow. Tunnels dug down to the doors. Houses in Revestoke had High pitched roofs to accommodate the snow loads that no longer exist. The Bennett dam on the Peace river has destroyed to downstream habitat and wetlands. Site C is the next dam that Hydro is building to heat the pipeline from the tar sands to Vancouver. Hydro's own advisors said no we don't need it. Install solar instead.
Funny thing is - the people of British Columbia are so inured to "electricity comes from hydropower" and their electric utility (as seen on the car Bobby pulls up in) is called "BC Hydro" that Vancouverites refer to their electricity bill as their "Hydro bill".
Which, when your power *ISN'T* being produced by "BC Hydro" is very confusing. "My hydro bill? You mean water?" "No, electricity!"
Love a hydro project. We had the opportunity to see the Itaipu Dam in Brazil when it was spilling, outrageous scale.
Great video and it just shows how it can be done right. Thanks Canada!
Great video! But Robert states that a cubic meter of water dropping 1m produces a kW of electricity, which is a bit nonsensical. A cubic meter of water (1000kg) dropping 1m downwards produces ~9800 joules of energy. The wattage (power) is dependent on how fast you do it.
yeah i spotted that too, i think he means 10 kilojoules
This clearly blew Robert away, the scale is amazing, next time your in the area take a run over to Eastern Washington and spend the day at Grand Coulee dam, hydro is the truly good stuff!
When Grand Coulee needs Capacity increased they pickup the phone and call BC Hydro for more water that is stored behind the Mica,Duncan, Keenlyside and Revelstoke dam
Great vid Robert, looking forward to your Show here in Vancouver, eh….
Always been a big fan of Mr Lewellyn, you gained a subscriber!!
Realy nice video . Compliments.
BC Hydro is currently constructing a project on the Peace River also. Cheap and clean electric power should enable increased growth in the province. Great to see regions capitalizing on their renewable energy resources.
The soundtrack choice for this episode is one of the best!
Thank you
Was great meeting you in Vancouver, looking forward for the next year exhibit.
Fabulous video, extremely informative
Thank you for sharing, I love seeing my beautiful province in a positive light.
Roberts enthusiasm carried the interview
Fantastic episode, i have never seen the inside of a hydroelectric facility. What an amazing technology and hydro i a critical technology to support the integration of renewable energy and the decarbonisation of world economies.
Love it. Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe where I grew up is the sine qua non of all life there. It was an incredible investment which survived many disasters and continued to serve us. There is a big engineering project to fix it and keep it safe now. It would be so cool one day to see a Fully Charged episode from there :-) I cannot imagine it happening but it would be cool.
added to my wish list for next BC visit to try the coffee ☺️ great vid!
Having seen Robert play Kryten in a similar large space to that, I was expecting to see a T.Rex walk around the corner.
Very cool video, beautiful area. The local town Revelstoke is awesome and the ski hill has the largest vertical drop of any ski hill in North America at 5000 feet.
Excellent 👍
gorgeous video
Dam good video!
Brilliant presentation Rob✌🏻🇬🇧🇨🇦