Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) facilities are like large batteries that use water and gravity. They can store up to 12 hours’ worth of clean, renewable energy and send that power to the grid the moment it’s needed (for comparison, batteries provide about 4 hours of energy storage).
As the United States’ power grid evolves, receiving more variable clean energy sources, like solar power and wind energy, PSH plants could play a key role in ensuring that the grid is not only carbon-free but also reliable and resilient.
Today, PSH is often overlooked in future grid planning efforts, in part because the cost to build a new facility is not always clear. That’s why the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office, is developing improved cost estimates and cost models to reduce that uncertainty and give developers the data they need to decide where and when to construct new PSH facilities to support the country’s evolving energy grid.”
