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The San Diego County Water Authority and the City of San Diego are testing the waters on a pumped storage project that could help provide the region with up to 500 MW of clean energy, Windpower Engineering reports. The agency last week released a joint request for letters from electric utilities, developers, investors and energy consumers, to try and gauge interest in the project. Central to the proposal is an interconnection and pumping system between the existing San Vicente Reservoir and a new, smaller reservoir located uphill

The massive winter storm that began to strike Northern California and Nevada over the weekend has caused flooding and mudslides, and prompted evacuations across the region, with a second storm set to hit Monday evening. With California’s ongoing drought entering its sixth year, the massive rainfall is unusual and welcome, by some. The weather pattern driving the rain is a meteorological phenomenon known as a “pineapple express,” not to be confused with the Seth Rogen and Dave Franco comedy film of the same name.

The powerful storms that soaked Northern California over the past week did more than trigger power outages, mudslides and flash floods. They sent roughly 350 billion gallons of water pouring into California’s biggest reservoirs — boosting their storage to levels not seen in years, forcing dam operators to release water to reduce flood risks and all but ending the five-year drought across much of Northern California, even though it remains in the south, experts said Monday.

There are several concerns regarding weather conditions from Monday to Tuesday morning for the California Department of Water Resources. Jon Ericson with DWR said in the next several days, they expect the reservoirs to absorb that flow. “What we’ve seen is major streams and rivers peak over the last 24 hours, but what we’ll see in the next system is a second round of peaks as well,” said Ericson. “This is a colder system so we expect more snowfall at lower levels and less runoff to the reservoirs and to the rivers as well.”

Emergency crews in rescue boats and helicopters rushed to take advantage of a one-day break between storms Monday to rescue stranded people and assess damage after the heaviest rain in a decade overwhelmed parts of California and Nevada. Wine country in Sonoma County, California, was among the hardest hit areas, with up to 13 inches of rain since Friday. Rolling hills and vineyards along the scenic route known as River Road were submerged Monday with just the tips of vines visible in completely flooded fields.