Turn the mine into pumped hydro. A lot of mines will fill with water once you stop pumping it out. The cooling pond would become the upper reservoir but may ne

Turn the mine into pumped hydro. A lot of mines will fill with water once you stop pumping it out. The cooling pond would become the upper reservoir but may need to be enlarged for more potential as a battery. That keeps jobs in the area. EDIT: In the case of the Navaho the mine isn't next door to the plant but it does have water. Maybe a thermal plant would make sense with natural gas backup/overnight reheat and repurpose the current plants steam turbines.