A letter in the June 21 Peninsula Daily News defends four embattled lower Snake River dams as providing “dispatchable power” to complement intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar.
While hydroelectric plants can indeed help to seamlessly integrate intermittent renewables, the Bonneville Power Administration, selling power from 31 federal hydroelectric projects, has abundant options.
The most useful dams for these purposes are those with large storage reservoirs, like Grand Coulee, rather than run-of-the-river dams like those on the Lower Snake.
These latter dams have, unfortunately, proven all too effective at dispatching endangered salmon and steelhead.
Marc Sullivan
Sequim