<
https://theconversation.com/batteries-of-gravity-and-water-we-found-1-500-new-pumped-hydro-sites-next-to-existing-reservoirs-194330>
"In eight years, Australia wants to be four-fifths powered by renewables. Solar
and wind investment is pouring in. But to firm the renewables and overcome the
intermittency, we need overnight energy storage. That’s why there’s so much
interest in pumped hydro.
At its simplest, pumped hydro involves two dams, one high on a hill and one
down in a valley, with pipes and turbines connecting them. You store
electricity by pumping water uphill to the upper reservoir on sunny and windy
days – and turn it back into power at night or during calm or cloudy days by
letting the water flow back downhill through a turbine. Think of this system as
a giant “gravity battery”, where electricity is turned into gravitational
potential energy and back again.
The question now is: where are the best locations? Last year, we released a
global atlas of more than 600,000 greenfield locations for pumped hydro. These
are sites where there is no existing reservoir. About 4,000 of those are in
Australia, including the site for Queensland’s newly announced 5 gigawatt
Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro scheme.
Now we’ve identified 1,500 new Australian sites in our new bluefield atlas.
Bluefield refers to locations with one reservoir already in place, meaning only
one new reservoir needs to be built. Existing reservoirs already have a social
licence and are usually publicly owned. None of our sites require damming major
rivers.
Because we have so many good options, we can afford to be choosy. We can go all
the way to 100% renewables while only developing the very best sites."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
