<
https://theconversation.com/farmers-are-famously-self-reliant-why-not-use-farm-dams-as-mini-hydro-plants-212374>
"Farmers often pride themselves on their self-reliance. When you live far from
the cities, it makes sense to do as much as possible yourself. Australia’s
sheer size has meant many remote farms have long been off grid as it’s often
simply too expensive to get a power connection. But for those still on the
grid, there are now new options.
As solar gets cheaper, more and more farms are aiming to become self-reliant in
power. But until now, getting fully off the grid has had a sticking point –
solar intermittency. Solar power might be cheaper than ever, but if you don’t
have storage or backup, you’re still reliant on the grid when the sun doesn’t
shine.
Batteries are a compelling solution. But they might not offer a full day’s
backup and come with concerns about fire risk and waste.
Generators offer reliable backup. But they too have downsides – they have to be
resupplied and produce harmful emissions.
For farmers, there’s now another option: connect one of your dams to a river –
or link two dams together – to create a small pumped hydro plant to store
electricity from solar to use at night. The water in your dams could offer yet
another form of self-reliance.
Our new research has identified over 30,000 rural sites where micro pumped
hydro could work. A typical site could produce two kilowatts of power and store
30 kilowatt hours of energy – enough to run a typical home in South Australia
for 40 hours."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
