| General > General Technical Chat |
| Some old fashioned 'Hydro' power wasted!! |
| (1/1) |
| GlennSprigg:
Today, the 'missus' drove me to the Wellington Dam, another 60-70 kms South of Bunbury, Western Australia, for NO other reason that the power was off at home, after some dick-head crashed into a local power pole... "No computer... Internet... O.M.G. !!!" :palm: (It really is surprising how much we rely on power for not only the obvious, but for entertainment... Going to be off for up to 10 hours...) At the bottom of this Dam, there is an Outlet, that is blasting 24 hrs a day all year round, unlike some dams that have limited timed/moderated 'Over-Spills'. I couldn't help thinking that SURELY there could have been a relatively simple Electrical Turbine attached, that could have fed at least a hundred or 2 hundred homes in the numerous square-miles around this country area!!... or fed back into the 'Grid' as per homes these days!!! :scared: Anyway... somewhat removed from all that, the local Townships/Shires/Governments SINCE then, had paid 1.6 Million Dollars for numerous Murals to be painted throughout the local townships. Today, this Dam looks like this!!... with huge murals painted on it, by one guy... It was/(is!) a sight to behold, but I could not help remembering when I worked in Tasmania, and the Massive dams, and underground power-stations, where they had no option except for Hydro power!! Funnily enough, we might 'Think' of 'Hydro' as 'Free', but the logistics and complex infrastructure of it all, resulted in REAL costs typical of most generic Power creation technologies. 'Their' limit was just getting 'Fuel' there!! :-+ |
| AlbertL:
It would have been really clever if the artist had painted the mural so the water discharge appeared to be a male urinating! |
| tautech:
Yeah plan/hope to get there someday with our lad in Perth whom was there just 2 weeks ago for a short holiday with his family. Welly dam is about the only place in WA where you can catch a trout and the lad got one trolling in the shallows however it was just to small to keep. Pleased he was too as the dam was near full whereas the last time he was there some months back it was a 100yd walk to the water from normal levels. It does have a small hydro generation capability of just 2 MW which I remembered when researching it a few years back when we were to visit one Xmas but the lads new camper didn't arrive in time. :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Dam_Hydro_Power_Station |
| Halcyon:
--- Quote from: AlbertL on September 19, 2021, 02:23:32 pm ---It would have been really clever if the artist had painted the mural so the water discharge appeared to be a male urinating! --- End quote --- I'm guessing that was probably thought of and probably even joked about at the design stage, but not carried out as it's not "PC enough". |
| GlennSprigg:
--- Quote from: tautech on September 20, 2021, 08:33:08 am ---Yeah plan/hope to get there someday with our lad in Perth whom was there just 2 weeks ago for a short holiday with his family. Welly dam is about the only place in WA where you can catch a trout and the lad got one trolling in the shallows however it was just to small to keep. Pleased he was too as the dam was near full whereas the last time he was there some months back it was a 100yd walk to the water from normal levels. It does have a small hydro generation capability of just 2 MW which I remembered when researching it a few years back when we were to visit one Xmas but the lads new camper didn't arrive in time. :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Dam_Hydro_Power_Station --- End quote --- Thanks... I did not know that!! That comes from being originally a 'South-Aussie', as well as too 'crippled' now to manage to get more than 50 feet from the car, to read more signs!!! hahaha... :-+ |
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