California HydroPower

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California HydroPower

63 Percent Shortfall in Hydropower Generation This Year, Means the Gaps is Being Taken Up by Natural Gas, Solar and Wind

As California'shistoric droughtdries up the state's water supplies and withers its crops, it's also shaking up the way electricity is produced there.

There's so little water available in the state's reservoirs that California's ability to produce hydropower has been cut in half, while its use of renewables and natural gas power has spiked, a U.S. Energy Information Administrationreport published Mondayshows.

Normally, 20 percent of California's power comes from hydroelectric sources. But not anymore.

For the first six months of 2014, only 10 percent of the state's electricity was hydropower, roughly between 900,000 megawatt hours in January and 2.3 million megawatt hours in June, EIA data show. The average hydropower generation for January is about 2 million megawatt hours, and nearly 4 million megawatt hours in June.

Most of California has been mired in an extreme or exceptional drought since 2011, a phenomenon that recent studies show hasa complicated connectionto climate change. As of the latest drought monitor, more than 58 percent of California is experiencing the most intense drought conditions, while the entire state is currently seeing some level of severe or extreme drought.

Nearly all of California's reservoir levels are below average for this time of year, with the water level of Lake Shasta, one of the state's largest reservoirs, currently sitting at 42 percent of historical average, said California Department of Water Resources spokesman Ted Thomas.

Conditions are so dire that the California State Water Project, which provides supplemental water to 29 public water agencies, can only deliver 5 percent of the amount of water those agencies requested this year, he said.

Withless water fillingthe state's reservoirs than usual, hydroelectric dams' ability to produce electricity is drastically reduced.

Source: Climate Central

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