One of the smaller Canary islands, el Hierro, has built a combined
hydro/wind power station. Hydro is used by allowing water to flow from
an upper reservoir to a lower reservoir, driving turbines, and wind
power is used to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.

"At the end of June its new hydro-wind facility, Gorona del Viento, came
fully on stream and in July and August it provided roughly half of the
island's energy needs. That means the island's 10,000 inhabitants are
suddenly less reliant on supplies of diesel arriving over unpredictable
seas from Tenerife, 200km away"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34424606

It's not the sort of solution that could be applied everywhere, of
course, but I found this particular application interesting. I worked
on the neighbouring island, La Palma, for many years.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

Mike Tomlinson wrote:
One of the smaller Canary islands, el Hierro, has built a combined
hydro/wind power station. Hydro is used by allowing water to flow from
an upper reservoir to a lower reservoir, driving turbines, and wind
power is used to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.

"At the end of June its new hydro-wind facility, Gorona del Viento, came
fully on stream and in July and August it provided roughly half of the
island's energy needs. That means the island's 10,000 inhabitants are
suddenly less reliant on supplies of diesel arriving over unpredictable
seas from Tenerife, 200km away"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34424606

It's not the sort of solution that could be applied everywhere, of
course, but I found this particular application interesting. I worked
on the neighbouring island, La Palma, for many years.


More like 20km, not 200.

I don't think that there is any argument that renewables can work well in
some places. The Canaries are blessed with lots of wind and El Hiero
clearly has the important storage capacity.

Currently we lack storage (and wind a lot of the time).

Tim

En el artículo 1510559666465725946.688418timdownie2003-yahoo.co.uk@news
..eternal-september.org, Tim+ escribió:

More like 20km, not 200.

205km, centre to centre according to this.

http://es.distance.to/tenerife/el-hierro

The other small island, La Gomera, is about 80km from La Palma but some
days a trick of the light makes it look much, much closer.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

En el artículo , Chris Hogg
escribió:

The alternative to a lower reservoir is the sea itself, but that
requires the right topography close to the coast to create an upper
reservoir, and making sure that salt water doesn't leak from the upper
reservoir and contaminate the local water table

Indeed, the el Hierro scheme uses fresh water for exactly that reason,
so that sea water doesn't contaminate the aquifer if the reservoirs or
pipework leak. Fresh water is in short supply in the Canaries so they
are very careful with it.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

En el artículo 1510559666465725946.688418timdownie2003-yahoo.co.uk@news
..eternal-september.org, Tim+ escribió:

More like 20km, not 200.

ps. if it really were 20km, they would have some difficulty operating
inter-island flights

https://www.bintercanarias.com/

Flights between el Hierro Valverde (VDE) and Tenerife Norte (TFN) take
40 minutes, between TFN and la Palma (SPC) 30 minutes. I've flown
between the various islands so many times I've lost count.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

On 05/10/2015 10:08, Mike Tomlinson wrote:

ps. if it really were 20km, they would have some difficulty operating
inter-island flights

Nah, shortest inter-island flight flight is 2.7km(47 secs)

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08...flight-is.html

;O)

On 05/10/15 09:16, Mike Tomlinson wrote:

One of the smaller Canary islands, el Hierro, has built a combined
hydro/wind power station. Hydro is used by allowing water to flow from
an upper reservoir to a lower reservoir, driving turbines, and wind
power is used to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.

"At the end of June its new hydro-wind facility, Gorona del Viento, came
fully on stream and in July and August it provided roughly half of the
island's energy needs. That means the island's 10,000 inhabitants are
suddenly less reliant on supplies of diesel arriving over unpredictable
seas from Tenerife, 200km away"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34424606

It's not the sort of solution that could be applied everywhere, of
course, but I found this particular application interesting. I worked
on the neighbouring island, La Palma, for many years.


Top notch analysis of just how much of this is green bull**** and how
much is real

http://euanmearns.com/el-hierro-rene...rmance-review/


--
Global warming is the new Margaret Thatcher. There is no ill in the
world it's not directly responsible for.

Yes, but I'd have thought they should be using Geothermal means to give them
power. I mean all those islands are volcano's.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
Remember, if you don't like where I post
or what I say, you don't have to
read my posts! :-)
"Mike Tomlinson" wrote in message
...

One of the smaller Canary islands, el Hierro, has built a combined
hydro/wind power station. Hydro is used by allowing water to flow from
an upper reservoir to a lower reservoir, driving turbines, and wind
power is used to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.

"At the end of June its new hydro-wind facility, Gorona del Viento, came
fully on stream and in July and August it provided roughly half of the
island's energy needs. That means the island's 10,000 inhabitants are
suddenly less reliant on supplies of diesel arriving over unpredictable
seas from Tenerife, 200km away"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34424606

It's not the sort of solution that could be applied everywhere, of
course, but I found this particular application interesting. I worked
on the neighbouring island, La Palma, for many years.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

Yes Lapalma is pretty close. I have been there and the locals seem to
delight in telling tourists about the way half the island is going to split
off and destroy everything nearby and along the african coast. They even
take you to a freshish lava flow and allow you to melt the soles of your
shoes when you walk on it and lagh.....
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
Remember, if you don't like where I post
or what I say, you don't have to
read my posts! :-)
"Tim+" wrote in message
...
Mike Tomlinson wrote:
One of the smaller Canary islands, el Hierro, has built a combined
hydro/wind power station. Hydro is used by allowing water to flow from
an upper reservoir to a lower reservoir, driving turbines, and wind
power is used to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.

"At the end of June its new hydro-wind facility, Gorona del Viento, came
fully on stream and in July and August it provided roughly half of the
island's energy needs. That means the island's 10,000 inhabitants are
suddenly less reliant on supplies of diesel arriving over unpredictable
seas from Tenerife, 200km away"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34424606

It's not the sort of solution that could be applied everywhere, of
course, but I found this particular application interesting. I worked
on the neighbouring island, La Palma, for many years.


More like 20km, not 200.

I don't think that there is any argument that renewables can work well in
some places. The Canaries are blessed with lots of wind and El Hiero
clearly has the important storage capacity.

Currently we lack storage (and wind a lot of the time).

Tim

Yes and there are often so many English on them I wonder if by now instead
of Spanish newspapers given out,they might try uk ones?
sadly though I'd like to go back, being blind and my spanish is crap, I'll
pass.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
Remember, if you don't like where I post
or what I say, you don't have to
read my posts! :-)
"Mike Tomlinson" wrote in message
...
En el artículo 1510559666465725946.688418timdownie2003-yahoo.co.uk@news
.eternal-september.org, Tim+ escribió:

More like 20km, not 200.

ps. if it really were 20km, they would have some difficulty operating
inter-island flights

https://www.bintercanarias.com/

Flights between el Hierro Valverde (VDE) and Tenerife Norte (TFN) take
40 minutes, between TFN and la Palma (SPC) 30 minutes. I've flown
between the various islands so many times I've lost count.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

Ah, yes, the old story about the side of the Cumbre Vieja falling off
and causing a mega-tsunami which will inundate America. Where I worked
we could watch it all happen from a safe distance.

La Palma isn't ruined by over-development for tourism like the eastern
Canary islands. It's unspoilt and they plan to keep it like that.
There won't be any concrete tourist hell-holes, ever. It's a beautiful
place with stunning views and several micro-climates. It's not called
'la isla bonita' for nothing.


En el artículo , Brian-Gaff
escribió:

Yes Lapalma is pretty close. I have been there and the locals seem to
delight in telling tourists about the way half the island is going to split
off and destroy everything nearby and along the african coast. They even
take you to a freshish lava flow and allow you to melt the soles of your
shoes when you walk on it and lagh.....

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

En el artículo , The Natural Philosopher
escribió:

Top notch analysis of just how much of this is green bull**** and how
much is real

http://euanmearns.com/el-hierro-rene...ect-september-
2015-performance-review/

A very interesting link, thanks, and the comments are worth a read too.
For me, the take-away is that GdV provides useful input to the island's
power grid but is not the "100% of energy supplies" panacea suggested by
the BBC article. In other words, it's best seen as part of an
integrated energy solution taking in oil, hydro and wind.

It makes it clear that the original purpose of the GdV project was to
pump fresh water up to a large reservoir for distribution (some by
gravity, presumably) to other parts of the island and that the hydro
generation came as an afterthought.

It also clarifies that GdV is pretty much experimental and that lessons
are still being learnt in how best to achieve the best balance between
fresh water supply, reservoir levels, power generation, and having to
extract power from the grid to pump water back up to the upper reservoir
when there is insufficient wind available. It must be quite a delicate
balancing act and one I would have thought would be better handled by
software rather than wetware.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artÃ*culo 1510559666465725946.688418timdownie2003-yahoo.co.uk@news
.eternal-september.org, Tim+ escribió:

More like 20km, not 200.

205km, centre to centre according to this.

http://es.distance.to/tenerife/el-hierro

The other small island, La Gomera, is about 80km from La Palma but some
days a trick of the light makes it look much, much closer.


Ah, it was La Gomera I was thinking of. But it is only about 20km from
Tenerife. Dunno why La Palma entered the discussion.

Tim

Bit like this :-
http://www.isleofeigg.net/index.html

En el artículo , Tim+
escribió:

Dunno why La Palma entered the discussion.

I mentioned it because I worked there for many years and it's close to
Hierro, Gomera and Tenerife. All the Canary islands have the same
problem with fresh water and needing oil to be shipped in for their
power stations.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

En el artículo , Chris Hogg
escribió:

One hopes that the old volcanic crater that is the upper reservoir
doesn't suddenly become active again!

Fresh boiling water for free then

There's an active sea volcano off the southern tip of Hierro which
erupted in 2012:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E...ierro_eruption

The Canary archipelago is volcanic, and the activity follows a line
running roughly north-east to south-west, with south west being the most
recent.

The volcanoes of San Antonio and Teneguia on the southern tip of La
Palma are recent; Teneguia erupted in 1972 and I've walked around it.
In some places steam erupts from ventholes and rocks are hot enough to
fry bacon and eggs on.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

On Monday, 5 October 2015 10:45:20 UTC+1, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 05/10/15 09:16, Mike Tomlinson wrote:

One of the smaller Canary islands, el Hierro, has built a combined
hydro/wind power station. Hydro is used by allowing water to flow from
an upper reservoir to a lower reservoir, driving turbines, and wind
power is used to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.

"At the end of June its new hydro-wind facility, Gorona del Viento, came
fully on stream and in July and August it provided roughly half of the
island's energy needs. That means the island's 10,000 inhabitants are
suddenly less reliant on supplies of diesel arriving over unpredictable
seas from Tenerife, 200km away"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34424606

It's not the sort of solution that could be applied everywhere, of
course, but I found this particular application interesting. I worked
on the neighbouring island, La Palma, for many years.


Top notch analysis of just how much of this is green bull**** and how
much is real

http://euanmearns.com/el-hierro-rene...rmance-review/


--
Global warming is the new Margaret Thatcher. There is no ill in the
world it's not directly responsible for.

I can see you never read that did you?
Most of the pumped hydro water is used for irrigation.