Anyone care to discuss or critique the technical and policy aspects of pumped hydro storage? No politics please.
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity - Wikipedia
Reading this recent Clean Technica article, I realized pumped hydro storage hasn't been on my radar. I'd been under the impression that it had strict topological requirements, and that the capacity for pumped hydro storage in the USA wasn't much larger than the existing deployments. According to the author, that isn't true — and costs for pumped hydro storage ought to be lower than for battery storage.
A Modest Pumped Storage Proposal For Democratic Candidates | CleanTechnica
I'm omitting the author's call to action for political candidates, because I'd like to keep politics out of this thread.
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity - Wikipedia
Reading this recent Clean Technica article, I realized pumped hydro storage hasn't been on my radar. I'd been under the impression that it had strict topological requirements, and that the capacity for pumped hydro storage in the USA wasn't much larger than the existing deployments. According to the author, that isn't true — and costs for pumped hydro storage ought to be lower than for battery storage.
A Modest Pumped Storage Proposal For Democratic Candidates | CleanTechnica
[...]
Closed loop pumped hydro storage is one of the best grid-scale electricity storage options available
The NREL and other studies make it clear that it’s one of the cheapest forms of storage available, much cheaper than most alternatives. It’s incredibly stable and mature technology, with the first one having been built in the 1890s. There are an awful lot of skilled resources who know how to work rock who are looking for work because coal is dying and it’s a lot more automated than it used to be. It has great characteristics for 1-7 day storage. The Australian study makes it clear that there’s far more resource capacity than is required. They modeled only 300-meter plus head heights close to grid connectivity with limited height dams and found 250 times as much capacity in the US as was needed.
Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford, a Top 100 Climate Influencer and lead of the team that produced the 100% Renewables by 2050 study, assumed pumped hydro in his modeling.
[...]
Closed loop pumped storage hydro has small ponds, small dams, doesn’t impede streams, doesn’t impact fish spawning, uses over and over a tiny fraction of the fresh water in the States, doesn’t emit CO2e for decades from anaerobic decomposition under reservoirs and doesn’t involve toxic chemicals. But it’s regulated as if developers were building the Hoover Dam, building several hundred foot dams [...]
Closed loop pumped hydro storage is one of the best grid-scale electricity storage options available
The NREL and other studies make it clear that it’s one of the cheapest forms of storage available, much cheaper than most alternatives. It’s incredibly stable and mature technology, with the first one having been built in the 1890s. There are an awful lot of skilled resources who know how to work rock who are looking for work because coal is dying and it’s a lot more automated than it used to be. It has great characteristics for 1-7 day storage. The Australian study makes it clear that there’s far more resource capacity than is required. They modeled only 300-meter plus head heights close to grid connectivity with limited height dams and found 250 times as much capacity in the US as was needed.
Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford, a Top 100 Climate Influencer and lead of the team that produced the 100% Renewables by 2050 study, assumed pumped hydro in his modeling.
[...]
Closed loop pumped storage hydro has small ponds, small dams, doesn’t impede streams, doesn’t impact fish spawning, uses over and over a tiny fraction of the fresh water in the States, doesn’t emit CO2e for decades from anaerobic decomposition under reservoirs and doesn’t involve toxic chemicals. But it’s regulated as if developers were building the Hoover Dam, building several hundred foot dams [...]
I'm omitting the author's call to action for political candidates, because I'd like to keep politics out of this thread.