A new paper co-authored by Australian National University (ANU) Professor Andrew Blakers addresses how long-duration pumped hydro energy stations (PHES) provides 95% of global energy storage for the electricity industry and has the storage potential of 2 trillion EV batteries, which along with batteries, can be game changers for the world’s energy storage needs.
On a Linkedin post about the paper, Blakers said PHES also lasts over 100 years, requires no new dams on rivers, has tiny land and water requirements and requires minimal mining.
“PHES has far lower capital cost ($ / kWh) than batteries (which excel for short term storage). Together, PHES and batteries solve energy storage,” Blakers said.
Image: Australian National University
Published in IOP Science, the Pumped hydro energy storage to support 100% renewable energy paper discusses the Global PHES Atlases developed by ANU which identify 0.8 million off-river (closed-loop) PHES sites with a combined 86 million GWh of storage potential, and about 3 years of current global electricity production.
“Long-duration energy storage is required to support future solar-dominated energy systems. The purpose of this study is to draw attention to the fact that off-river PHES offers virtually unlimited, mature, low-cost, low-impact, long-duration storage in most countries,” the paper says.
“On a global basis, and for most regions, the PHES resource is two orders of magnitude larger than the likely future storage requirement of affluent, ‘electrified’ and decarbonised people. This means that energy planners can deploy large-scale solar and wind projects with confidence in the knowledge that there is at least one highly credible storage solution.”
Off-river PHES sites identified in the Global PHES Atlases do not require expensive measures to cope with major riverine floods or the need to dam more rivers.
“These attributes mean that the cost estimates and perceptions developed for river-based hydroelectric systems generally do not apply to premium off-river PHES systems,” the paper says.
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