Natel Energy CEO Gia Schneider discusses the complementary role of hydropower and gas in maintaining US electric grid reliability.
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Schneider: A Snow-Free Sierra Nevada May Be Only a Decade Away
“And I think that the urgency around those reservoirs has increased as some of the science has become more clear that the prospect of a snow-free Sierra is something that unfortunately is probably not hundreds of years away, but is, you know, something again th…”
Insight
Schneider: Scaling hydro requires shifting from megaprojects to distributed projects
“The way in which we're going to increase capacity is, we firmly believe, A shift that moves away from just building megaprojects, and instead looks at building projects that are more distributed in nature, and, which means smaller by moving to smaller projects…”
Insight
Schneider: Dam ecological impact depends on water flow design, not size
“That again, as we've dug into this more, is that there, it does, it seems very clear as you dig into the science around the fact that there are small dams that have major negative impacts. It's not a size thing. You could have big dams, you could have small da…”
Assertion Supported
Schneider: Natel's hydro turbine blades achieve over 99% fish safety
“And those two things basically, you know, create a turbine blade that has now been shown many times over to be greater than 99% safe for fish passage.”
Assertion Contradicted
Schneider: Aswan Dam Lost Hydropower Productivity Due to Rapid Silt Buildup
“In the Aswan example, for example, there's so much silt moving in the river, that, that, you know, a side effect of that dam is that it rapidly, unfortunately, became a lot less productive as a hydropower asset because it filled up with silt, and there wasn't …”
Opinion
Schneider: High costs restrict hydrokinetic power to niche applications
“What we've generally seen is that hydrokinetic is, makes sense in very certain specific applications, but it's been hard to get costs to the point where it's as broadly applicable as we'd love it to be.”