164 Gigawatts with 10 hours storage is over 1 Terawatt hours of storage. Pumped hydro seems like the perfect solution for the daily variance of solar power for places near the equator with mountains nearby. California with the Rockies and Northern India with the Himalayas. I’m confused why only China is building this, does anyone in the industry know?
I’m guessing China is willing to sacrifice local environmental interests more than most.
Or it could be they realize they can build the expertise to build such projects in mountainous regions better than others can do. I think the vast majority of hydro dams are built to take advantage of rainfall and run of river.
That scale of storage tied is with the huge renewables projects going in would displace an awful lot of coal and gas. They are striving for energy security and this scale of projects would be on that pathway.
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164 Gigawatts with 10 hours storage is over 1 Terawatt hours of storage. Pumped hydro seems like the perfect solution for the daily variance of solar power for places near the equator with mountains nearby. California with the Rockies and Northern India with the Himalayas. I’m confused why only China is building this, does anyone in the industry know?
I’m guessing China is willing to sacrifice local environmental interests more than most.
Or it could be they realize they can build the expertise to build such projects in mountainous regions better than others can do. I think the vast majority of hydro dams are built to take advantage of rainfall and run of river.
That scale of storage tied is with the huge renewables projects going in would displace an awful lot of coal and gas. They are striving for energy security and this scale of projects would be on that pathway.