For You Electrical Nerds….This Is What A REAL Battery Looks Like

Snoop

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So I thought I would ride along part of the Lower Niagara Gorge today on my bike, and figured some of the electrical “enthusiasts” on the forum might enjoy a few of these pics.

This is the “lower” Niagara River, or the part which has already flowed over Niagara Falls (several miles upstream from this pic) as it winds toward Lake Ontario.

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Here is a brief video I caught of a rappelling team practicing their skills:



Coming around the bend and heading north, I present to you the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant.

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This bad boy is able to unleash, at maximum operation, 2,525,000,000 Watts of electricity, which is the equivalent of 3,386,000 horsies. That’s a lot of ebikes. :)

The power is hydroelectric. An underground tunnel diverts water from above the Falls to this plant, where it is released in a controlled fashion down hundreds of feet through multiple turbines which then spin and produce electricity.

What makes it like a battery? Located behind that structure is a large body of water (around here called The Reservoir). During the night, when statewide power demand is low, water from the Falls is pumped into the reservoir, as needed, to “recharge” it with massive potential energy (elevated water). During the day when demand is higher, additional water is released from the reservoir and dropped through the turbines, to add to what is already flowing from the Falls, to convert that potential energy into electrical energy.

There are additional flow control points above the Falls (they can control how much water flows over the Falls for asthetics, and how much is diverted to the Power Plant).

Heading a bit more north, just across the River, you can see a similar plant used by our Canadian neighbors.

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The history of the Niagara Power plant is very interesting and I encouraged interested members to Google more about it. Further reading will reveal a plant which preceded this one and ended in tragedy as it collapsed into the River in the 50s.

I hope you enjoyed the read! Happy biking.
 
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