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The U.S. Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a cost estimation tool for new closed-cycle pumped storage hydropower (PSH) plants in the United States. The tool allows operators to select from a number of system characteristics and take into account factors such as local geology, labor rates and inflation.
NREL has created a cost estimating tool that evaluates the potential construction and labor costs associated with closed-loop PSH plants in the United States.
The tool allows operators to select from a range of system features, taking into account factors such as local geology, labor rates and inflation. NREL says it could help grid planners get an accurate idea of ??how many PSH facilities could reasonably be built in the coming decades and how they could work alongside batteries.
“Pumped hydropower is perhaps the most promising energy storage solution we have to achieve the enormous scale-up needed to achieve a clean electricity sector,” said NREL researcher Daniel Inman.
PSH is the largest source of grid-scale energy storage capacity in the United States, reaching nearly 96% by 2022, according to the US Department of Energy. However, according to NREL, few pumped storage hydroelectric plants have been built since the 1970s, in part because of high initial costs.
Closed-loop PSH systems, separated from natural waterways, are the preferred option today as they are more environmentally friendly. NREL noted that because of gaps in the construction of pumped storage facilities, it has been difficult to predict how much closed-loop facilities might cost.
“This tool allows potential project developers to get an estimate of what a specific installation might cost,” Inman explained. “And a more realistic cost estimate would allow us to develop capacity expansion modeling results that are more realistic.”
Last week, NREL released a set of high-resolution solar data over Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East in its Renewable Energy Data Explorer tool.
In February, researchers at the Australian National University published a global atlas of potential PSH sites in former mining areas. |
