Drought in the West

Somewhere I have an article describing global river systems not yet dammed for hydroelectricity and 'as desired' water-supply control. As I recall it did not address projected future climates.

Perhaps it should not, as projections of future rain are less confident than are those for temperature. And yet somebody ought to look maybe. Because pouring large amounts of concrete (dams) and installing hydro-turbine spinners only makes sense with confidence for payback.

 

Since this thread began I have learned that something like 7 million acre feet of water descending through typical earth topography can provide about 3.5 gigawatts of hydroelectricity. I love having rules of thumb, and this one = 2.

PE = m*g*h but with added planetary realistic constraints.

The novel Dune had a planetary ecologist and I was entranced by that. Movies do not develop that because interpersonal dramas and zap-boom-stab sell better. Earth already has a few who could almost be called planetary ecologists (myself not among them), and I'm optimistic that in coming decades this will be improved. More broadly thoughtful and knowing not only rules of thumb, but also lots of details.

I hope to survive long enough to see earth getting real planetary ecologists. Because, y'know, we need that.

 

I'm seeing Hover Dam (Lake Mead) listed with a nameplate capacity of 2.08 GW. 2020's output averaged 0.38 GW. Glen Canyon Dam (Lake Powell) is shown with a capacity 1.30 (or 1.32?) GW. 2015's average output was 0.39 GW. A list shows these two dam having 74% of the entire Basin's installed capacity, and at some unstated time produced 70% of the Basin's hydro energy.

Outside this basin, falling water levels took California's Oroville Dam went offline Aug 5.

Between growing population, shrinking water flow rate, and shrinking hydraulic head, some additional energy sources will be necessary. But when some friends moved to AZ a while back and replicated the rooftop solar they left behind here, they faced significant solar disincentives. Have things improved since?

 

Lake level was at 641 feet that day, and continued dropping to 628 the later half of September.

Thanks to several 'atmospheric river' events, it is now up 100 feet from that low, and already within about a foot of last year's high of 730 feet:
Lake Oroville Water Level

Up here in the PNW corner and extending well into BC, we have been collecting plenty of rain and snow this season. Unfortunately, the bulk of that precipitation has been falling in the area that wasn't having a drought:
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Drought/