Pumped Hydro is Australia’s Giant Stride Towards Renewable Energy

Giving extreme preference to pumped hydro is thought to be Australia’s giant strides towards renewable energy. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has told Malcolm Turnbull, pumped hydro could be the key to unlocking "cost-effective large-scale energy storage that can stabilize high levels of renewable energy in the national electricity grid", such as in South Australia.

How Pumped Hydro Works-

The pumped hydro functions by pumping water uphill between two connected reservoirs when power is plentiful, and dispatching power to the grid when demand is high or when wind and solar do not work. Pumped hydro is also widespread in Europe, especially in the alpine parts of Italy, Germany and France, and in Scandinavian countries like Norway. It is also widely used in Japan and the United States.

Pumped Hydro in Australia-

Pumped hydro is not something entirely new to Australia, the issue is there was no major development in it for the past two to three decades. Now the Australian government is galvanizing it to make some positives in the field of renewable energy. A joint Arena-Australian National University study has listed thousands of sites where other pumped hydro storage projects could be built, with a total capacity of a massive 67,000 gigawatt hours. The potential sites that are identified for pumped hydro are:

• South Australia's Spencer Gulf
• Valleys of the Hunter
• Illawarra
• Lower Blue Mountains regions of NSW

"Pumped hydro is the only mature, bankable technology that is readily available at scale," ARENA chief Ivor Frischknecht said. ARENA is itself already funding feasibility studies into pumped hydro storage in Tasmania, and in the Upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia and Kidston in north Queensland.

Benefit-

The Pumped hydro facilities will contribute to the stability of the electricity grid by combining renewable energy generation with large-scale energy storage capability. It is also expected to help meet the growing demand for electricity at peak times as well as help alleviate the state’s peak power prices.