Gigantic Energy Storage Project Taking Shape In Kentucky

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Remodeling a former coal mine into a huge, 287-megawatt vitality storage facility just isn’t a straightforward stunt to drag off, particularly when the expertise entails pumped storage hydropower. Only some dozen comparable services exist within the US, and none have been constructed inside the previous 30 years or so. Nonetheless, a brand new pumped storage undertaking is starting to take form, and it’ll put Kentucky on the map because the showcase for a lot of extra to comply with.

Extra Vitality Storage For Wind & Photo voltaic Energy

Referred to as the Lewis Ridge Long-Duration Vitality Storage Mission, the brand new pumped storage facility might be positioned in Bell County within the southeast nook of Kentucky. The undertaking comes underneath the wing of Lewis Ridge Pumped Storage LLC as a department of Rye Growth Acquisition, a newly shaped enterprise of the funding agency Local weather Adaptive Infrastructure and EDF Inc., which is a part of the worldwide vitality firm EDF Group.

New methods for lengthy length vitality storage have crossed the CleanTechnica radar over time, however pumped storage nonetheless beats the whole lot else within the discipline by a large margin. Even with none new tasks coming on-line for the reason that twentieth century, pumped storage accounts for 96% share of utility scale vitality storage capability within the US (see extra long duration background here).

The concept behind pumped storage is straightforward sufficient: Let the pure power of gravity do a number of the work. When electrical energy demand is low, extra producing capability is deployed to pump water to a reservoir at a better elevation. When demand rises, the water is launched to stream downhill, to a producing station under.

About 40 or so pumped storage services had been constructed within the US earlier than the flip of the century. Now that wind and photo voltaic are surging, pumped storage can play an essential position in grid decarbonization. The problem, although, is to seek out websites with appropriate topography and water assets, with out operating into environmental conflicts and group opposition. Alternatives to beat each hurdles can come up when the positioning has already been disturbed, as is the case with Lewis Ridge.

$81 Million For Lengthy Length Vitality Storage

By “long duration,” Rye implies that the Lewis Ridge undertaking will present for about eight hours of vitality storage. That’s a for much longer time period than typical lithium-ion battery arrays. Li-ion vitality storage sometimes lasts for about 4–6 hours, which is enough to deal with each day grid-related duties involving demand spikes and variable entry to wind or solar energy. With lengthy length storage, the additional hours present further flexibility, serving to to accommodate extra wind and photo voltaic belongings on the grid.

The US Division of Vitality has been supporting improvements within the lengthy length vitality discipline, with precedence positioned on expertise that may store wind or solar power for at least 10 hoursranging as much as days, weeks, and months. The Lewis Ridge undertaking doesn’t fairly meet the minimal, however it got here shut sufficient to win preliminary approval for an Vitality Division cost-sharing award of $81 million final spring.

On October 22, Rye introduced that the award has been confirmed, starting with an preliminary tranche of $12 million in the direction of the full of as much as $81 million.

“This type of long-duration energy storage is required to successfully integrate additional intermittent power, such as solar and wind, onto the grid,” Rye emphasised.

“Pumped storage hydropower facilities typically operate for decades and are the most climate-friendly energy storage technology, according to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study released in 2023,” the corporate added for good measure.

Loads Extra Lengthy Length Vitality Storage The place That Got here From

The Lewis Ridge undertaking just isn’t a one-off. The Vitality Division funding got here by way of the Workplace of Clear Vitality Demonstrations, with the expectation that the vitality storage expertise might be replicated elsewhere across the nation.

Rye doesn’t intend to disappoint. “We have identified additional coal mine sites in the U.S. that are suitable for pumped storage hydropower, where insights gained from the Lewis Ridge facility can support future projects,” explains Rye CEO Paul Jacob.

The NREL examine cited by Rye helps to elucidate why the Vitality Division is zeroing in on pumped storage. Printed final 12 months, the examine assesses the lifetime greenhouse gasoline emissions of pumped storage in comparison with different massive scale vitality storage methods. Emissions are an essential consideration for pumped storage as a result of it’s an infrastructure-heavy expertise that entails diesel-powered development tools and carbon-loaded supplies like concrete and metal. As well as, the pumps run on electrical energy that may very well be sourced from fossil fuels, relying on the grid combine.

Nonetheless, the NREL analysis workforce discovered that pumped storage is the “smallest emitter of greenhouse gases” among the many 5 utility-scale vitality storage methods included within the examine. The opposite 4 had been compressed-air methods, lithium-ion batteries, lead-acid batteries, and vanadium redox stream batteries.

“The finding suggests that PSH (pumped storage hydropower) could offer substantial climate benefits by playing a key role in accommodating wind and solar generation,” the workforce concluded.

The examine was printed final 12 months and it types the premise of a free interactive software for vitality storage builders — and anybody else who’s — to calculate lifetime greenhouse gasoline emissions for a pumped storage tasks. The software is on the market on-line underneath the title, Pumped Storage Hydropower Life Cycle Evaluation.

“Lifetime emissions vary depending on numerous site-specific factors, such as construction materials, components, and especially the grid electricity mix used to operate the facility,” NREL emphasizes.

Run-Of-The-River Pumped Storage Is Additionally Coming

The Lewis Ridge vitality storage undertaking is a closed-loop system that recycles water backwards and forwards between two human-made reservoirs. Rye has different closed-loop methods within the works, and the corporate has additionally noticed a possibility to assemble open methods that draw water from a river, pump it to a reservoir, and let it stream again to the river.

Rye goals to recruit the nation’s fleet of present dams into the trouble. Although some dams are slated for removing, many others have an extended life forward of them.

“By powering existing structures that are not at-risk for removal, Rye’s projects add a net-benefit to the environment, (by) repurposing an existing structure, investing in the regions infrastructure, and using that non-powered dam to drive local economic investment while bringing new renewable energy online,” the corporate explains.

Rye notes that there are about 90,000 dams present within the US and solely 3% of them are being deployed to generate electrical energy, making the opposite 97% ripe with prospects.

Regulate southwestern Pennsylvania and different components of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, the place Rye has already scouted some favorable circumstances for run-of-the-river methods.

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Picture (cropped): Pumped hydropower is the premise for 96% of utility-scale vitality storage capability within the US, and it’s ripe with potential for growth (courtesy of Lewis Ridge Pumped Storage LLC).