Mechanical Energy Storage



There is increasing discussion of linking renewable energy systems with pumped storage hydro facilities, with facilities that already exist such as in Norway and Canada. Or finding solutions for countries with an abundance of renewable energy production such as Denmark; because a large amount of its electricity generated from wind is generated at periods of low demand, necessitating export to Norway and Sweden. Although pumped hydro storage alone will not be enough to meet Denmark’s renewable energy targets.
Pumped hydro storage is one of the most mature energy storage technologies with 100 sites operating worldwide. However, it is probably more viable to refurbish or repower an existing hydro storage plant to improve its efficiency than build new plants. These plants have very significant adverse impacts on the environment and require a suitable terrain, therefore their deployment is severely limited.
During a typical day, “off peak” demand solar pv or other renewable energy sources can be used to pump water to an upper reservoir. At times of peak demand, the water would be released through a small hydro turbine to generate electricity. This would also generate a commercial gain for utilities from the net difference in power rates.
As with any hydro-power facility, locations to deploy pumped hydro storage are limited. Sites must have a geographic elevation difference of more than 400 feet, meaning that many (flat) countries and regions simply cannot benefit from this technology. The site’s storage capacity is further limited by the water capacity of the reservoirs. However, as with all storage technologies, sites can be located at any point on the grid.
Though, even for flat countries there may be solutions, for example, the Dutch government is investigating a plan to create a hydro storage facility in a hollowed-out island in the North Sea. The site would be capable of storing 30 GWh of energy.
Storing energy by compressing air in empty underground aquifers in another possible solution to renewable energy’s intermittency. A few large compressed air energy storage (CAES) applications are in operation in Germany, Japan and the USA.

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