Pumping Water Uphill to Store Excess Electricity
One of the greatest hurdles to implementing widespread renewable energy installations is storing the power for when it is actually usable. For example, wind normally blows the most at night. I read a rather interesting article today in the EU Energy Policy Blog about an innovative (and rock solid) way of solve this, which is already being used across Europe:
The pump-storage technology allows the transformation of low-altitude water into high-altitude water using off-peak electricity, and then the production of electricity at peak periods releasing water through turbines like in any hydroelectric plant. Because of large energy losses in the transformation of electricity into water and then of water into electricity (the cycle efficiency is of the order of 80%), this process is not generically good at saving energy but it can be profitable on economic grounds, both by decreasing production costs and by increasing consumers’ surplus.
The article goes into much greater depth, and is a great read overall. The only problem is finding sites suitable for such storage. Wind farms are often cited on vast fields with relatively little variability in terrain, thus little room to build the reservoires necessary. But with high capacity lines delivering the power elsewhere, it seems like this is a promising option. As long as you keep enough cold water in the river to keep plenty of trout in the river of course. I’d rather not have to give up my fly fishing.
Master of Public Policy candidate at the 
