A closed-loop pumped storage system promises to store large amounts of long-duration energy without … [+] disturbing river ecosystems.U.S. DOE
A venerable energy-storage technology is getting a new lease on life thanks to a clever redesign and an agreement between the power industry and environmentalists.
“Pumped storage is getting a second look. The sleeping giant is waking up for several reasons,” said Dan Reicher, a senior research scholar at Stanford University and a former U.S. assistant secretary of energy.
The stumbling block for hydropower has long been opposition from environmentalists, because hydropower has relied on dams that damage river ecosystems.
But pumped-storage systems are now being designed as closed-loop systems, far from rivers. When solar and wind production is high, they pump water from a reservoir at a low elevation to one at a high elevation. When…