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The Australian project is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_2.0_Pumped_Storage_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_2.0_Pumped_Storage_Power...
by matkoniecz 3y ago
The Australian project is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_2.0_Pumped_Storage_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_2.0_Pumped_Storage_Power...
But it seems hardly replicable say in central Europe.
- bryanlarsen 3y agoMaybe not now. But prices are reducing at 80% per decade, so it's likely only a few years away from being achievable.
- matkoniecz 3y agoEven if solar would cost literally zero, then it does not solve problem that there is no place to fit such megasized pumped storage. (I am speaking about central Europe or more specifically Poland)
- pydry 3y agoSee the study linked to in my comment above. The one where I said "weirdly people keep disputing this". In Europe there's some geography known as "the alps" which has been used for years this way by the countries surrounding it. Poland's environmental record is atrocious on almost every level. I guess the coal lobby must run the government or something because nobody else in Europe that reliant on fuel that dirty. They're a model of how not to do anything right.
- matkoniecz 3y ago> In Europe there's some geography known as "the alps" which has been used for years this way by the countries surrounding it. Well, that is hardly solution for Poland.
- bryanlarsen 3y agoYou don't need rivers or even much of a slope for pumped storage. Just water and a few hundred feet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludington_Pumped_Storage_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludington_Pumped_Storage_Power...
- matkoniecz 3y agoHmm, apparently that is more demanding for locations than I thought Though > The plant takes advantage of the natural steep sand dune landform of eastern Lake Michigan
- oezi 3y agoThis doesn't make any sense. Just use fossils when there are no renewables available. Gas peakers for short term unavailability and others for medium unavailability.
- pfdietz 3y agoYou don't need pumped hydro. Batteries + hydrogen would work fine in combination, and Europe (and in particular Poland) has enormous underground salt formations that could store millions of gigawatt-hours of hydrogen.