Taking this further: How we can collaborate with SMUD
( This focuses more on who we can collaborate with to help use hydroelectricity to create clean filters rather than creating the filters) SMUD
(Sacramento Municipal Utility District) is a large company that supplies a
large chunk of the Sacramento County and a tiny portion of Placer County with
the energy it generates, and is a very large utility company. It utilizes
natural gas, but around 50% of the energy it uses is generated through
renewable green energies and extremely powerful and large hydroelectric power
plants, which is a very big advantage compared to other companies. It
creates a large amount of electricity from the hydroelectric plants based on
the American Rivers. It also owns wind and solar powered electricity plants,
but the hydroelectric are the plants that are of importance. 11 reservoirs in
the Upper American River and 8 powerhouses help to generate the massive amount
of hydroelectric power that they attain and distribute to people. In one water
year (October 1 – September 30), they generate around 2 billion kilowatt-hours
of energy to supply to hundreds of thousands of homes. This may not be as large
as some of the very large hydroelectric plants; this is good enough to suffice
a good portion of the state, mainly Sacramento County/ Placer. Of course all
this water can’t all just be bundled up without the help of the dams they build.
The largest one of the 2 they have is the Consumnes Power Plant, on the Consumnes
River. It creates a massive amount of their hydroelectricity, something that
could be useful if used in larger amounts. Hydroelectricity has great benefits,
and a few downsides, one of which could become a problem. It’s not the
hydroelectricity itself, but the dams building is split in between the river it
is created in, creating a disturbance in the environment. But we wouldn’t have
to create any dams, since, if we could use SMUDs dams, then that could make
this issue a lot simpler to deal with, just don’t create the dam. Using SMUDs
resources, people can pursue a better and more efficient source of energy,
hydroelectricity. SMUD was the best choice because they extensively use and
research in hydroelectricity.
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| The comparison of SMUD to another popular utility company |
