Pumped hydro facilities are again in trend; as utility-scale energy storage solutions achieve critical value.
FREMONT, CA: The energy industry is modifying rapidly. While the industry prioritizes optimizing energy generation from renewable sources like wind and solar, delving into storage solutions that can solve the problem of reliability is gaining equal importance. Renewable energy will accomplish its true potential and get into the grid when these aspects converge.
While battery-based storage solutions have developed recently to offer enhanced storage at competitive prices, attaining large-scale energy storage is still difficult. This has occurred in energy providers twisting to the pumped hydro option. Pumped hydro storage has been known for decades now, but the way has attained renewed relevance, thanks to the changing energy dynamics.
Promoting pumped hydro is a bulk storage tactic that can turn the responsibilities associated with solar and wind into advantages. Solar and wind energy producers are searching for paths to channel their production into the grid. However, the periodic nature of solar and fluctuations relevant to the wind make these sources inconsistent and unreliable for the grid. When adequate storage capabilities are deployed, it is possible to stock up on excess energy and supply it to the grid at prime time.
Water from lower altitudes can be pumped to a reservoir at higher altitudes utilizing pumps that run on wind and solar energy from pumped hydro storage facilities. Thus, solar and wind are transitioned into an alternative form and stored. The water can then spill downhill through turbines to generate and supply electricity to the grid. Thus, a pumped storage facility can help integrate solar and wind energy grids.
According to an object published in CleanTechnica, the US is taking into account increasing its investiture in developing pumped water storage facilities. The article also says the National Hydropower Association mentions that around 97 % of utility-scale energy storage in the US is through pumped hydro. Thus, it is obvious that pumped hydro presents many exciting possibilities to the energy sector in the current times.
