01-12-2024, 02:59 AM
There seems to be a growing global anti-dam movement at the moment, I can't help but remain sceptical because it seems to be in direct response to vastly improving options for hydroelectric power generation, and of course some of the opposing groups are linked to renewable alternatives. Human social / political behaviours nearly always exposes vested interests.
Just as there is a lot of gibberish spoken about nuclear, gas and geothermal, a lot of gibberish is being spoken about dams. Especially regarding methane generation and release. The dumbed down claims are that dams increase methane production as they age, but it's a bogus claim built on a number of assumptions about anaerobic build up of bacteria in dams. To meet the numbers in the report the dams have to be located in very specific regions and have stable stagnant water levels for decades, typically tropical and full. The two main studies cited refer to dams (Actually in the study case old open cut mines from the 80s) in Malaysia and Brazil, the water in one wasn't even considered drinkable.
Almost three decades ago there was a major study in dam emissions, in particular looking into mitigation of anaerobic build up. The study found the solution was so simple, control the depth of water withdrawal giving the outflow some natural variability across the dam depth and greater than 90% of emissions cease because there will never be an anaerobic build up in the first place!
Just as there is a lot of gibberish spoken about nuclear, gas and geothermal, a lot of gibberish is being spoken about dams. Especially regarding methane generation and release. The dumbed down claims are that dams increase methane production as they age, but it's a bogus claim built on a number of assumptions about anaerobic build up of bacteria in dams. To meet the numbers in the report the dams have to be located in very specific regions and have stable stagnant water levels for decades, typically tropical and full. The two main studies cited refer to dams (Actually in the study case old open cut mines from the 80s) in Malaysia and Brazil, the water in one wasn't even considered drinkable.
Almost three decades ago there was a major study in dam emissions, in particular looking into mitigation of anaerobic build up. The study found the solution was so simple, control the depth of water withdrawal giving the outflow some natural variability across the dam depth and greater than 90% of emissions cease because there will never be an anaerobic build up in the first place!
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"