Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Coastalwatch

The authors make a strong and plausible case for their claims below so well worth a read for anyone wishing to know more!

Unlimited energy storage in Europe

Most studies of European 100% renewable energy overlook pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), for the following, incorrect, reasons: there are few PHES sites; more dams on rivers are required; large areas of land are flooded; large amounts of water are required; there is a heavy environmental cost; and the capital cost of PHES is high. All these perceptions are wrong.

Fortunately, Europe has unlimited, low-cost, off-the-shelf, low-environmental-impact, long-duration, off-river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), that requires tiny amounts of land and water and does not require new dams on rivers.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/03/14/unlimited-energy-storage-in-europe/

Martyn1981

This is another of those - "is it interesting, or am I really boring" bits of news, but something jumped out that I've been pondering:

Lithium-ion looks set to be eligible with the government initially having suggested it would be excluded, when the LDES scheme was first proposed in January 2024.
Last week, we published a guest blog from lithium-ion OEM Envision where the firm argued that lithium-ion was now cost-competitive at up to 10 hours of discharge duration.

It had crossed my mind, that as the cost of these batts drops rapidly, then their role for SDES might expand into medium and long duration if they become economically viable, so interesting to see that that may be the case. Only guessing, but perhaps they won't ever(?) be competitive for true LDES roles, such as 100hr duration, but more options for storage in the 4-10hr range, is cool.

UK government sets 8-hour minimum for LDES cap-and-floor scheme

The UK government has published a Technical Decision Document confirming crucial aspects of its long duration electricity storage (LDES) cap-and-floor scheme, which includes increasing the minimum duration required from six hours to eight.

The document, released by regulator Ofgem on 11 March, details the final overarching rules and requirements for the scheme as well as how it will be implemented, though significant detail still remains to be worked out.

The scheme will provide a cap-and-floor revenue protection for 20-25 years that will allow all capital costs to be recoverable, and is effectively a subsidy for LDES projects that may not be commercially viable without it. Most energy storage projects being deployed in the UK today are lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) of somewhere between 1-hour and 3-hour in duration (very occasionally higher).

michaels

Coastalwatch said:

The authors make a strong and plausible case for their claims below so well worth a read for anyone wishing to know more!

Unlimited energy storage in Europe

Most studies of European 100% renewable energy overlook pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), for the following, incorrect, reasons: there are few PHES sites; more dams on rivers are required; large areas of land are flooded; large amounts of water are required; there is a heavy environmental cost; and the capital cost of PHES is high. All these perceptions are wrong.

Fortunately, Europe has unlimited, low-cost, off-the-shelf, low-environmental-impact, long-duration, off-river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), that requires tiny amounts of land and water and does not require new dams on rivers.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/03/14/unlimited-energy-storage-in-europe/

Really interesting.  I wonder how the cost per person changes when you add in the necessary distribution cables though?

[As an aside, perhaps Scottish independence could be financially supported via providing electricity generation and storage services for the rest of the UK?!]

QrizB

Coastalwatch said:

The authors make a strong and plausible case for their claims below so well worth a read for anyone wishing to know more!

I've read that article a couple of times now and I can't help but think that their arguments are straw men. They haven't "solved" the main challenged with pumped hydro which is that you still need two large bodies of water with significant change in altitude between them!

Proposing ten big schemes to serve the whole EU might make it simpler in some regards, but it adds complications in others.

ed110220

Coastalwatch said:

The authors make a strong and plausible case for their claims below so well worth a read for anyone wishing to know more!

Unlimited energy storage in Europe

Most studies of European 100% renewable energy overlook pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), for the following, incorrect, reasons: there are few PHES sites; more dams on rivers are required; large areas of land are flooded; large amounts of water are required; there is a heavy environmental cost; and the capital cost of PHES is high. All these perceptions are wrong.

Fortunately, Europe has unlimited, low-cost, off-the-shelf, low-environmental-impact, long-duration, off-river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), that requires tiny amounts of land and water and does not require new dams on rivers.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/03/14/unlimited-energy-storage-in-europe/

I don't think this is actually the main limitation on pumped hydro. There have been several on the cards for quite a few years in the UK but none are under construction as far as I know. Some sites were even identified in the 1960s or 70s to be used with inflexible coal and nuclear power but have never been built. If sites were the limiting factor, we wouldn't have a whole loft of unbuilt schemes.

Rather, I think it's because these are big, one-off engineering projects that frankly western countries have got quite bad at building.They take a long time to build, are susceptible to delays and cost overruns. They take a long time to pay back. That makes finance difficult and expensive. It's no surprise that China builds by far the most pumped hydro, because they're able to get the finance and have a lot of experience of these kinds of big engineering schemes usually without big delays. 

On the other hand, batteries are quick to roll out and there aren't the same risks of delays, so financing is probably a lot easier.

michaels

ed110220 said:

Coastalwatch said:

The authors make a strong and plausible case for their claims below so well worth a read for anyone wishing to know more!

Unlimited energy storage in Europe

Most studies of European 100% renewable energy overlook pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), for the following, incorrect, reasons: there are few PHES sites; more dams on rivers are required; large areas of land are flooded; large amounts of water are required; there is a heavy environmental cost; and the capital cost of PHES is high. All these perceptions are wrong.

Fortunately, Europe has unlimited, low-cost, off-the-shelf, low-environmental-impact, long-duration, off-river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), that requires tiny amounts of land and water and does not require new dams on rivers.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/03/14/unlimited-energy-storage-in-europe/

I don't think this is actually the main limitation on pumped hydro. There have been several on the cards for quite a few years in the UK but none are under construction as far as I know. Some sites were even identified in the 1960s or 70s to be used with inflexible coal and nuclear power but have never been built. If sites were the limiting factor, we wouldn't have a whole loft of unbuilt schemes.

Rather, I think it's because these are big, one-off engineering projects that frankly western countries have got quite bad at building.They take a long time to build, are susceptible to delays and cost overruns. They take a long time to pay back. That makes finance difficult and expensive. It's no surprise that China builds by far the most pumped hydro, because they're able to get the finance and have a lot of experience of these kinds of big engineering schemes usually without big delays. 

On the other hand, batteries are quick to roll out and there aren't the same risks of delays, so financing is probably a lot easier.

I guess with technology evolving all the time there is little appetite to lock into 100 year projects.

They quote install costs of $22 per kwh in Australia - don't know what Coir Glas is mooted to cost - what happens if you build this and then battery (silicon?) costs drop to $15 per KWH?   (See this from BNEF suggesting that in China Li-on is already cheaper than other LTES: Thermal and compressed air storage cheaper than lithium-ion batteries for 8-plus hour durations: BNEF | Utility Dive)

That said work does seem to be progressing on Coire Glas although this is only 30GWH
Site Updates — Coire Glas

Exiled_Tyke

An old schoolfriend of mine who is now incredibly high up in  National Grid told me that Dinorwig has not been financially viable and if they were planning it today it wouldn't get built.   

Coastalwatch

That's interesting ET as at the other hollow mountain PHES site, Cruachan, they are planning to install four more turbines to almost double energy output. They are not increasing water capacity in any way so potential duration would reduce to almost half from 14 to 7 hours if used at maximum output.

Magnitio

There are quite a few interesting alternatives for energy storage appearing, even in countries that you would think have plenty of opportunity for pumped-hydro e.g. Switzerland redox-flow project....

https://flexbase.ch/en-us/projekt

Martyn1981

Magnitio said:

There are quite a few interesting alternatives for energy storage appearing, even in countries that you would think have plenty of opportunity for pumped-hydro e.g. Switzerland redox-flow project....

https://flexbase.ch/en-us/projekt

Great find. I was pondering flow batts when thinking about CW's post about PHES. I had in mind 100's or 1,000's of smaller locations dotted all over the UK.

Looking at your link, you could even skimp massively on the power side, with perhaps just 100MW, whilst maintaining the cheap energy part at 1 or 2GWh. If it can get as cheap as hoped, with safe and abundant electrolytes, then that would provide a TWh+ of storage, and be easily scaleable in line with growing need.

Also a good way to 'ship' the leccy around the country when demand is lower, ready for low RE / high demand periods.

I get a bit excited about MDES and LDES these days. Not sure why, but I suspect it's because SDES looks solved and relatively cheap, so this is now the last piece of the jigsaw(ish).