| Pumped storage
adds. “We need cheaper and more efficient storage to make it easier to capture and store higher penetrations of renewable clean energy for use when energy generation is unavailable or lower than demand.”
Chinese ambitions China has been responsible for most of the global
growth in pumped storage over recent years. Zheng Sheng’an is the President of the China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute and said that, as of the end June 2021, China had 34 large and medium sized pumped storage plants in operation, with a total capacity of 32.49GW. There is an additional capacity of 55GW under construction. China’s experience shows that the keys in driving pumped storage development are location identification, holistic planning and a revenue guarantee mechanism. Sheng’an explained that China has also been conducting research to promote pumped storage development and has issued guidance on how pricing should be determined. There was a clear call for enhancing a two-tier pricing system and costs sharing. “That is to say there will be a guarantee on the price in order to ensure that the initial investment in construction can be recouped more predictably. This will lay the foundation for further development of pumped storage in China,” says Sheng’an.
Jobs, jobs, jobs As the international forum highlights, more pumped
storage hydropower capacity will be crucial to the clean energy transition. “You cannot affect the clean energy transition with variable renewable energy alone,” Turnbull says. “You cannot get there just with solar panels and wind turbines. You’ve got to be able to store the electricity when the sun is blazing and the wind is blowing so that you can use it when they’re not. We’ve got to get on and build pumped hydro.”
Jennifer Granholm, US Secretary of Energy adds:
“There is a resurgence of interest in starting projects to add more pumped storage capacity to the energy system. And that means three things: jobs, jobs and jobs. So we need to put people to work to get these projects off the ground. Not just researchers and scientists but engineers, construction workers, dam operators and maintenance workers.” One such example of new projects is Coire Glas which is the first pumped storage projects to be built in the UK for over 30 years. “Long duration pumped storage is a key part of the transition to net zero. We currently have about 4GW of storage capacity in the UK,” says Ian Innes, Project Director for Coire Glas pumped storage at SSE Renewables. In their future energy scenarios the National Grid has indicated that we will need around 40GW. Coire Glas is a 1500MW scheme that will make a significant contribution to that increase and capacity required.” “We have to seize the momentum,” Pascal Radue, President and CEO of Hydro Solutions at GE Renewable Energy, says. “Policymakers should assess the long-term storage needs of their future power system now, so that the most efficient options, which may take longer to build, are not lost. Now is the time for us as an industry to demonstrate what is needed so that we can ultimately bring the necessary capacities online to contribute to the success of the energy transition.”
COP26
Looking ahead to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, to be held in the UK during November 2021, former Australian Prime Minister Turnbull believes that policymakers need to incentivise investment in sustainable pumped storage right now. If we do not build in the next three to five years, then he says the world may not have enough pumped storage capacity to support the transition to net-zero. And there will be the real risk that carbonisation will stall, just as it needs to accelerate. ●
References
www.hydropower.org/news/ international-government- led-coalition-calls-for-urgent- action-on-pumped-storage- hydropower
Energy storage is ignored crisis within the climate crisis. Hydropower essential to back up wind and solar by Malcolm Turnbull. August 22, 2021.
https://asia.nikkei.com/ Opinion/Energy-storage-is- ignored-crisis-within-the- climate-crisis. OPINION
The reports from each of the International Forum on Pumped Storage Hydropower’s working groups are available online at https://pumped-storage-
forum.hydropower.org/
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