pumped-hydro energy storage

A call for grant proposals has been promised this month, with the bloc’s executive yesterday firing the gun on a separate exercise related to cross-border EU energy infrastructure projects.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers have studied which tech offers the lowest levelized cost of energy to provide the US Western Interconnection grid with electricity when wind and solar are not available. They assumed 85% renewables penetration and determined that geologic hydrogen storage and natural gas combined-cycle plants with carbon capture storage are the cheapest options for 120-hour discharge applications. 


The pumped hydro project aims in part to reduce the amount of electricity that is exported from Ontario to several U.S. states at a loss.

The state government in Queensland, Australia, has announced plans to finance design work and cost-related studies for the construction of a new pumped hydro facility.

An group of international scientists has developed a mathematical model to design hybrid renewable energy systems relying on pumped hydro storage for islands. According to their analysis, which was applied to the Ometepe island in Nicaragua, a similar system could provide a cost of energy ranging from €0.047/kWh to €0.095/kWh.

Australian utility AGL is transforming its operations in a number of ways, from restructuring the company itself, to building energy storage facilities for flexible distribution of renewable energy into the future. The company is also planning to build a pumped-hydro facility at a disused open-cut coal mining site in eastern Australia.

Construction is expected to commence in the weeks ahead on the massive 250 MW Kidston Pumped Hydro Storage Project in Queensland, as developer Genex Power has announced a $115 million share issue that will deliver the funds for the project to proceed.

Canadian behemoth Atco has purchased the rights to develop the 325 MW Central West Pumped Storage Hydro Project in Central West New South Wales and credits the investment to policy certainty from the NSW Government. As a significant firming agent the project is ideally placed in the state’s proposed Central West-Orana Renewable Energy Zone.

A proposed 400 MW pumped-hydro storage project is on track to become the first of its kind in more than three decades in Queensland, Australia. GE Renewable Energy is backing the plan.

Pumped hydro storage is highly cost competitive for large-scale energy storage, according to a report published by the San Diego County Water Authority. The report models a pumped hydro project as securing better financing terms than battery storage.