via www.esru.strath.ac.uk
This illustration shows a typical Pumped Hydro scheme, in which water is pumped from a water body uphill to a reservoir, which can later be reversed to flow downhill, spinning a turbine to generate electricity before being discharged back into the water body. This system can be adapted to perform the same function inside of abandoned mines, using old mines for hydro storage.
HOUGHTON — Energy storage is approaching a critical stage. It is as Timothy Scarlett, associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech), remarked, a globally urgent, pressing technology problem that affects the majority of people in the world.
The most pressing challenge currently facing electrical grids everywhere, said Scarlett, is energy…