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Pumped Hydro With Better Financing Can Compete With Batteries

/in , /by /PV Magazineby William Driscoll Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Lazard’s well-known Levelized Cost of Storage analysis does not cover pumped hydro storage, and a pumped hydro cost estimate from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is not expected until late this year, as a follow-up to an interim report. Beating them to the punch is a report by UC San Diego professor David Victor and five co-authors, Pumped Energy Storage: Vital to California’s Renewable Energy Future. The report provides the following cost comparison between pumped hydro and battery storage:

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San Diego Water Department Ranks Low In National Customer-Satisfaction Survey

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Jeff McDonald

Customers in Fresno are much happier with their water service than residents of San Diego. So are ratepayers in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Denver. In fact, a new survey found only one water provider in the western United States less popular than the San Diego Water Department — the San Jose Water Co., a for-profit utility whose corporate owner is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The city of San Diego ranked 23rd out of 24 large water providers in a customer-satisfaction survey published by J.D. Power, the global marketing and information services company based in Orange County.

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Dam It All: More Than Half Of The World’s Long Rivers Are Blocked By Infrastructure

/in , /by /Salonby Rachel Ramirez

It hasn’t even been a week since the U.N. released a depressing report on biodiversity, and now, a new study in Nature shows that 63 percent of the world’s longest (at least 620 miles) rivers are impeded by human-built infrastructures such as dams and reservoirs. Dam(n). Rivers are a key source of food and water for agriculture, energy, and humanity. They’re critical to many cultures and communities and home to a plethora of species like salmon and trout. They also bolster ecosystems by restoring groundwater and serve as a buffer against drought.

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Desal Plant Operator Assumes Maintenance Of Carlsbad Lagoon

/in , /by /The San Diego Union Tribune by Phil Diehl Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

 

The company that built and operates the Carlsbad seawater desalination plant took over stewardship of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon this week, the only San Diego County lagoon that allows power boats, kayaks, paddleboards and other recreational and commercial activities. Poseidon Water will be responsible for dredging Agua Hedionda to keep it open and deep enough for public and private uses including a YMCA Aquatic Park, the Hubbs-SeaWorld Fish Hatchery, the Carlsbad Aquafarm shellfish operation and the lagoon foundation’s nature center.

 

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California’s Infrastructure Gets C- in New Report Card

/in , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Erika Cervantes and Brenda Gregorio-Nieto Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A new report gave California’s infrastructure a grade of C-, which means it requires attention despite being better than the country’s average. The report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) said California’s infrastructure is average when graded in 17 categories, including aviation, roads, transit, drinking water, and more. The annual infrastructure report card talked about the progress San Diego has made and where the city needs to improve.

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How LADWP Uses Two Lakes To Store Energy Like A Giant Battery

/in , /by /LAistby Sharon McNary

If L.A. is going to stop burning fossil fuels by 2045 a key goal of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposed Green New Deal it must store a lot more of the excess solar and wind energy it produces during the day so it doesn’t have to rely on gas and coal energy to power the city when the sun sets and the wind dies. There’s a growing focus on building big batteries — for example, the kind that use lithium ions. But L.A. needs energy storage that is far bigger than any traditional battery.

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San Diego Climate Change Group Advocates For Local Green New Deal Support

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Lauren J. Mapp

A San Diego-based group of environmental activists launched a 100-day campaign Monday calling on the region’s congressional representatives to support the Green New Deal to mitigate the effects and exacerbation of climate change. San Diego 350 hopes to convince Reps. Susan Davis and Scott Peters, D- San Diego, and Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, to support the resolution by inundating their offices with calls and postcards from constituents between now and the August congressional recess.

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Snow In May? Sierra Could Get Up To A Foot As Rare Cold Storm Sweeps Over California

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael McGough

In addition to wet weather and possible record-setting cold in the Sacramento Valley and foothills later this week, the Sierra will see snow showers Thursday and into the weekend. With temperatures dipping as low as 25, a rare mid-May snowstorm could affect the northern and central Sierra. In a special weather statement early Monday, National Weather Service’s Reno office warns that snow levels could fall to 6,000 feet by the end of the week. Forecasts for the mountains and foothills also show wind gusts up to 40 mph are possible by midweek, with even stronger winds expected.

 

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A New Water Tax Might Be California’s Best Chance At Clean Water For All

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicle

At least 1 million Californians don’t have stable access to clean drinking water. That’s a shameful and unacceptable fact in this wealthy state. In his February State of the State address, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the safe drinking water crisis which is centered in lower-income communities ranging from the coasts to the Central Valley  “a moral disgrace and a medical emergency.”

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March-Like Storm To Blast California With Drenching Rain, Mountain Snow and Severe Weather

/in , /by /AccuWeatherby Kyle Elliott

After sunshine and pleasant weather grace California early this week, a powerful storm system will barrel into the state during the middle to latter part of the week. The return of a March-like weather pattern, driven by a large dip in the jet stream, will be the culprit for driving this rare storm into the West Coast. Rain will first move into Northern California on Wednesday before overspreading the rest of the state by Wednesday night and Thursday. By the time the storm moves into the Four Corners region later on Friday, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and parts of Northern and coastal California will receive between 1 to 3 inches of rain.

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