Pumped Hydro — The Veteran in need of support
Maintaining an increasingly renewable grid will require more than dams and reservoirs
With over 130 gigawatts of installed capacity globally, pumped storage hydropower accounts for over 90% of utility-scale energy storage worldwide. First developed in the early 20th century, pumped storage has played a vital role in grid stability for decades by pumping water uphill using excess electricity, then releasing it to generate power on demand. But with the rapid growth of variable clean sources like wind and solar in recent years, pumped hydro storage has faced new challenges. Can this mature technology provide the massive amounts of electricity storage required to enable the transition to sustainable and reliable carbon-free grids of the future?
How does Pumped Hydro work?
Pumped storage hydropower facilities require two reservoirs at different elevations that are created by constructing dams, including an upper reservoir at high altitude atop a mountain or hill to store water, and a lower dam downstream along a river valley or near a lake to form a lower reservoir. These two reservoirs are…
