3 ms·

Planet Money covered this recently: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=620288114 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcr

Planet Money covered this recently: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=620288114 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor... Here's an entry on the storage facility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_County_Pumped_Storage_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_County_Pumped_Storage_Sta... "The biggest battery in the world is a giant lake tucked away in the Appalachian Mountains on the border between Virginia and West Virginia" One of the more promising things is actually water-based storage using back-to-back reservoirs. Water has a lot of mass per volume and is really low tech. And it's a proven strategy that has been operational for many decades.

rsynnott 8y ago
Pumped storage is great where the geography makes sense, but there are a limited number of good sites which can be economically connected where needed to grids. Long-term, I'd have more hope for currently emergent tech (flow batteries etc).
- jbrownpa 8y ago
  it is true that pumped storage and great solar locations are often in different locations. maybe there is a possibility for retrofitting some existing dams that are used primarily as resevoirs and not power plants, since pumped-storage are net-neutral on resevoir storage. example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Dam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Dam ...but i am NOT an expert by any means, and it's probably way more complicated than that.
  - Taniwha 8y ago
    I think the easy way to do this is simply to build extra generation capability on existing hydro dams, then letting the dams fill while the sun shines and the wind blows and empty out faster when they don't
simonbyrne 8y ago
It also introduces interesting financial arrangements. e.g. rather than profiting on the electricity directly, they make more money by selling options to sell at a fixed price at peak times.
radicalbyte 8y ago
As a child (25-30 years ago) I visited an hydroelectric plant in Wales. It always impressed me that such a simple technique could work so effectively. They also had a pumping system for use whenever say the nuclear plant had excess production..

rsynnott 8y ago

Pumped storage is great where the geography makes sense, but there are a limited number of good sites which can be economically connected where needed to grids. Long-term, I'd have more hope for currently emergent tech (flow batteries etc).

jbrownpa 8y ago
it is true that pumped storage and great solar locations are often in different locations. maybe there is a possibility for retrofitting some existing dams that are used primarily as resevoirs and not power plants, since pumped-storage are net-neutral on resevoir storage. example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Dam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Dam ...but i am NOT an expert by any means, and it's probably way more complicated than that.
- Taniwha 8y ago
  I think the easy way to do this is simply to build extra generation capability on existing hydro dams, then letting the dams fill while the sun shines and the wind blows and empty out faster when they don't

simonbyrne 8y ago

It also introduces interesting financial arrangements. e.g. rather than profiting on the electricity directly, they make more money by selling options to sell at a fixed price at peak times.

radicalbyte 8y ago

As a child (25-30 years ago) I visited an hydroelectric plant in Wales. It always impressed me that such a simple technique could work so effectively. They also had a pumping system for use whenever say the nuclear plant had excess production..