On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:20:55 +0100 someone who may be "TMC"
wrote this:-

Why does no one mention HEP as a renewable source of energy any more?

They do. For example Scottish Renewables
http://www.scottishrenewables.com/

Surely there must still be some areas of Wales and Scotland along with bits
of Northen England that would be ripe for building dams and flooding.

The NoSHEB identified a number of schemes early on. Roughly half of
them were built, so there is the potential to install at least twice
as much hydro here as there currently is.

The same sort of people who object to wind turbines also object to
hydro though, the landscape lobby.

NoSHEB just looked at relatively large schemes, there is also
potential to convert every former water mill into a small generating
plant using low-head forms of engineering, not just in Scotland. An
example in England is http://westernrenew.co.uk/Case_Study.pdf.


The first new large scale hydro scheme for decades, Glendoe, has
already been opened, but suffered from a rock fall in the tunnel
http://www.scottish-southern.com/SSEInternet/index.aspx?rightColHeader=104&id=3218&TierSlicer1_ TSMenuTargetID=140&TierSlicer1_TSMenuTargetType=4& TierSlicer1_TSMenuID=6

Plans to convert Sloy to pumped storage have also been approved
http://www.scottish-southern.co.uk/SSEInternet/index.aspx?id=23316&TierSlicer1_TSMenuTargetID=136 8&TierSlicer1_TSMenuTargetType=1&TierSlicer1_TSMen uID=6
Pumped storage is not a perpetual motion machine, they consume more
electricity than they produce, but their flexibility is a great way
of matching supply with demand. For a short period they can produce
far more electricity than a "conventional" hydro station on the same
site.





--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000...#pt3-pb3-l1g54