Quote:
Originally Posted by ksa8907
Maybe I'm missing something, regardless of what state of is in, if there is excess renewable power isn't it a good idea to maximize its use? Even if its inefficient to send the power, store it, and then generate it again as hydro, unless the loss was huge I would think it is overall beneficial.
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Indeed, it's been done for decades, with the Pacific DC intertie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_DC_Intertie shipping excess power from the Columbia River hydro (and these days, wind) to Southern California - and sometimes the other way, depending on seasonal demand.
WRT California building local power plants, where? Pretty much every significant hydro location is already used. Local wind & solar have the same use time issues. Fossil fuels? You pretty much have to ship in the fuel, which has its own costs. And with nuclear, you spend $1 billion on the plant, and $10 billion on the lawsuits from every anti-nuclear group under the sun.