{"id":478,"date":"2022-01-26T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T08:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pscsolaruk.com\/blog\/?p=478"},"modified":"2022-01-25T09:11:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T09:11:00","slug":"batteries-get-hyped-but-pumped-hydro-provides-the-vast-majority-of-long-term-energy-storage-essential-for-renewable-power-heres-how-it-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pscsolaruk.com\/blog\/batteries-get-hyped-but-pumped-hydro-provides-the-vast-majority-of-long-term-energy-storage-essential-for-renewable-power-heres-how-it-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Batteries get hyped, but pumped hydro provides the vast majority of long-term energy storage essential for renewable power \u2013 here\u2019s how it works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University, Matthew Stocks, Research Fellow, ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, Australian National University, and Bin Lu, Research Fellow, Australian National University<\/strong><\/p>

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The U.S. has thousands of lakes and reservoirs that could be paired for pumped hydro storage without the need for rivers. Ollo via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half within a decade<\/a>, the Biden administration\u2019s goal, the U.S. is going to need a lot more solar<\/a> and wind power generation, and lots of cheap energy storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wind and solar power vary over the course of a day, so energy storage is essential to provide a continuous flow of electricity. But today\u2019s batteries are typically quite small and store enough energy for only a few hours of electricity. To rely more on wind and solar power, the U.S. will need more overnight and longer-term storage as well.<\/p>

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While battery innovations get a lot of attention<\/a>, there\u2019s a simple, proven long-term storage technique that\u2019s been used in the U.S. since the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s called pumped hydro energy storage<\/a>. It involves pumping water uphill from one reservoir to another at a higher elevation for storage, then, when power is needed, releasing the water to flow downhill through turbines, generating electricity on its way to the lower reservoir.<\/p>

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Two types of pumped-storage hydropower; one doesn\u2019t require a river. NREL<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pumped hydro storage is often overlooked in the U.S. because of concern about hydropower\u2019s impact on rivers. But what many people don\u2019t realize is that most of the best hydro storage sites aren\u2019t on rivers at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We created a world atlas<\/a> of potential sites for closed-looped pumped hydro \u2013 systems that don\u2019t include a river \u2013 and found 35,000 paired sites in the U.S. with good potential. While many of these sites, which we located by satellite, are in rugged terrain and may be unsuitable for geological, hydrological, economic, environmental or social reasons, we estimate that only a few hundred sites are needed to support a 100% renewable U.S. electricity system<\/a>.<\/p>

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