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Re: “Keep lights on as Washington transitions to clean power” [April 5, Opinion]:
The recent editorial on energy and the drought causes me to suggest the study and hopefully use of pumped storage, which is the pumping of water back up over a dam to use in time of need — like night — for hydroelectric. It is done in other places.
On May 8, 2022, California had 103% of its energy produced from renewables but had to keep gas plants, which take hours to get started, running because night was coming. Sometimes solar panel farms have to be turned off because of excess power in the grid. The simple solution is hydro-storage. Washington is unique in our amount of hydropower. Let’s use it to create more power when we need it.
The power to do this would come from the solar panels on my and thousands of homes plus other renewables during the day when the renewables produce excess energy. And more solar homes are coming. No new transmission lines are needed because I am on the same grid as the 31 dams mentioned in the editorial, many of which don’t have fish concerns. No new gas plants or batteries needed, only some pumps and pipes.
Hans Dunshee, Snohomish
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