4 ms·

For solar and wind you need TWh of storage capacity, in Europe many days without solar or wind (just bad weather) is relatively common.

• tuukkah 3y ago
  Existing hydro is able to fill in for some of the storage needs, and pumping water up the dam will be one type of large-scale storage that can be built. See pumped-storage hydroelectricity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...
  • tuukkah 3y ago
    To get an idea of the scale of hydro storage: > European hydropower reservoirs provide a storage capacity of 220 TWh (85 TWh are located in Norway). https://setis.ec.europa.eu/hydropower-and-pumped-hydropower-storage-european-union_en https://setis.ec.europa.eu/hydropower-and-pumped-hydropower-...
  • albertopv 3y ago
    Europe is going through one of the worst drought we know of. There's literally no water to growth crops, let alone hydro, at least in Spain and Italy.
    • tuukkah 3y ago
      Pumped hydro does not need to consume water, it can pump the same water over and over. In some places, it can use saline water from the ocean. The EU report says hydro power can help agriculture e.g. if big reservoirs are built and on dry years the water from them can be used in agriculture.
      • albertopv 3y ago
        I'm italian, I live here, literally lakes in northern Italy have almost no water, it's now a drought almost two year long