One of the nation’s biggest electricity generators is slowing down because of ongoing droughts, and residents of the Southwest are about to pay the price. Literally.
John,
Recent news out of Arizona is driving home how climate change will require us to rethink every assumption of the world we currently live in.
One of the nation’s biggest electricity generators is slowing down because of ongoing droughts, and residents of the Southwest are about to pay the price. Literally.
Glen Canyon Dam generates hydropower from Lake Powell, which, in turn, is fed by the Colorado River. The dam’s eight giant turbines generate 1,300 megawatts of capacity when the reservoir is full — similar to a large coal power plant.
The dam fundamentally acts as a baseload power source. The federal Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) sells the electricity it generates to Southwestern utilities, municipalities, and tribal nations at below market rates because it doesn’t have fuel inputs like coal or natural gas power plants.
Glen Canyon Dam also helps with grid resilience, with the ability to ramp up output quickly to meet surges in demand or an emergency loss of supply.
However, climate change-related drought and increasing water demand are depleting Lake Powell substantially. It is now less than one-fourth full compared to twenty years ago.
As a result, the turbine’s generating capacity and power output are lowered. In the 1990s, the dam produced as much as 7,000 gigawatt-hours per year, supplying nearly 600,000 homes. In 2021, the dam produced only 3,000 gigawatt-hours.
John, the impact of climate change on Lake Powell and the Southwest is only one example of the growing consequences of not acting on this existential threat. Climate change is more than just rising sea levels and melting ice caps. It will leave no corner of our economy untouched.
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