Pumped hydro energy storage to eliminate fuel poverty
The idea is to make pumped hydro energy storage the number one energy policy for ensuring that we fully use our zero fuel cost wind energy to eliminate dependence on fossil fuel whilst ensuring dependable energy security at very low cost, thereby eliminating fuel poverty and ensuring affordable energy for businesses and other users.
Pretty water reservoirs can easily be deployed in many areas of Scotland where there is possibility of establishing upper and lower reservoirs (artificial and/or natural) where water from the lower reservoir is pumped to the higher reservoir during time of plenty cheap or excess wind energy. When the wind is not blowing then a valve is opened to run water from the upper reservoir down to the lower reservoir under natural gravity which drives a turbine-generator. Some quick study of contour maps shows that Scottish terrain offers thousands of opportunities from an engineering perspective. @WindFmAnalytics has done calculations and gathered data proving viability.
Apart from jobs in engineering #PumpedHydroEnergyStorage projects offer green jobs in all aspects of planning, construction and operation. Furthermore the enhanced use of zero fuel cost abundant local wind energy means that existing jobs and businesses will be protected from demand destruction caused by high gas prices.
Markets have failed Scottish households and businesses. There are shovel-ready pumped hydro projects which can trigger a beneficial boom in this sector but the investors are reticent to invest large capital up front without some long term price guarantees. The long term advantage of pumped hydro, with perhaps 120 years life time (better than a lithium battery with 5 year lifetime on daily cycle), becomes an investment difficulty if the long term revenues are uncertain. We need to recognise the strategic common sense of pumped hydro without excluding other possible energy storage technologies. The way to do this could be to provide an incentive for the initial decade of operation whereby an energy storage investor is provided a subsidy based on the energy storage usage of the unit. To ensure value for money of consumers the subsidy should be won through a competitive auction process and should be of sufficient scale (eg successive rounds of 500 GWh capacity) to make a difference and enable large scale energy storage bidders such as #PHES, without excluding other technologies.
Wind Farm Analytics has provided numeric examples and suggestions on how this can work in practice without significantly impacting the consumer. Indeed there are many studies indicating that the flexibility and ancillary services offered by controllable #PHES will lower the cost of energy substantially. Yes, its another subsidy to get the market moving but we are talking about cost of pennies per MWh in order to eliminate costs of perhaps hundreds of pounds per MWh.
Wind Farm Analytics proposes the cost of the initial subsidy can easily be absorbed by an Energy Storage Use of System (ESUoS) charge similar to but much smaller than existing Transmission and Distribution Network Use of System Charges (TNUoS, DNUoS). In this way the cost of the subsidy can be spread across all users (or alternatively all generators) without any noticeable impact on bills, but nevertheless guaranteeing energy storage winning bids to get a known subsidy for the first decade of their operation in proportion to the services they provide. No government money is needed up front since the price guarantee (paid only on delivery) should be sufficient to win investment for winning bids.
https://www.wind-farm-analytics.com/wp/energy-storage-use-of-system-esuos-charging/
@WindFmAnalytics has been proved correct as we argued for pumped hydro energy storage since more than ten years. Maybe it would be a good idea to employ strategic thinkers who have been proven correct instead of employing the same old people who got it wrong? Here is an article we wrote for Holyrood Scottish government magazine in 2014, if only we were listened to then by now Scottish consumers could have been entirely protected from high prices by pure wind pumped hydro with no risk of fracking pollution or nuclear meltdowns or mythical carbon capture which is economically and environmentally unviable:
https://www.wind-farm-analytics.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/32-33.pdf
Why the contribution is important
Some people want to decarbonise our energy system with intention of protecting the environment.
Others may not be convinced of this need but if you don't believe carbon dioxide causes dangerous climate change please consider wind energy is delivered for free to Scotland by nature and it makes basic common sense to utilise it fully when it can be delivered cheaply without damaging grid stability. Wind energy also produces no acid rain nor air pollution which might be considered advantages.
Making use of renewable energy is true sustainability and nothing to do with corporate greenwash or devious globalist conspiracies which sometimes do exist. The hijacking of renewable energy by deceitful hidden hands should be resisted but this does not mean renewable energy and sustainability should be resisted. It is the hijacking, greenwash and deceit that must be resisted. Renewable energy may be considered as "freedom energy" and offer resilience and energy security by being a distributed system, whether off grid or on a grid.
#PumpedHydroEnergyStorage is the key because it has the large scale required to store days and even weeks of national energy demand without any need for expensive fossil fuel which will one day run out. By making use of our local renewable resource we avoid the export of wealth to foreign fossil fuel suppliers, and avoid need for stealing fossil fuel of others via immoral and unnecessary foreign wars. North Sea gas and oil production has been in severe decline for twenty years and even if you can get a bit more out it won't last forever. We need to plan for the long term instead of just preparing another crisis a few years later.
Fossil fuel vested interests try to argue that wind energy is expensive even though recent gas prices have been around ten times higher per MWh than wind energy. They claim renewables benefit from subsidies even though wind farms are now operating without subsidies and anyway the nuclear and fossil fuel industries have benefited immensely from subsidies. They claim that wind energy requires fossil fuel back up but this is not correct because we can back up variable wind generation using #PumpedHydroEnergyStorage
We need to incentivise #PumpedHydroEnergyStorage because this is the only tried and tested technology to truly manage grid scale wind energy. This technology is highly efficient and in any case, whilst always desirable, efficiency is less of a problem when you have a resource delivered by nature for free and which will never run out, as opposed to a fossil fuel resource delivered at increasing cost from depleting reserves which will one day run out.
#PHES also enables electrification of transport and heating via wind energy. #PHES also enables cheaper-than-diesel green hydrogen generation using Scottish wind power because the low cost delivery of wind energy without pause even on non-windy days means that electrolysers can split our abundant rain water using our abundant wind energy with high utilisation close to 100% of the time which is key for low cost zero emission transport including cars, buses, ships and aeroplanes. Battery electric vehicles may also be beneficial but green hydrogen has an important advantage that it can be stored, also seasonally. In fact Scotland can utilise, export and monetise its bad weather as cheaper-than-diesel-clean-fuel. Green hydrogen from electrolysers powered using wind pumped hydro can eventually replace gas heating and cooking when we transition the gas grid section by section to pure green hydrogen. This is much better than injecting green hydrogen into the existing gas grid because in that case it becomes uneconomic to extract the pure green hydrogen in order to run hydrogen fuel cell vehicles which require high purity hydrogen. Even if you are a supporter of nuclear energy, which Wind Farm Analytics argues is too expensive compared to pure wind plus matching pumped hydro, then pumped hydro offers advantage since it can store and deliver the nuclear power during demand peaks beyond nuclear capacity.
Simple common sense. Pumped Hydro Energy Storage. @WindFmAnalytics
by WindFarmAnalyticsLtd on September 03, 2022 at 01:39PM
Posted by AlasdairPhilips September 05, 2022 at 10:31
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by Tony September 05, 2022 at 13:00
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by WindFarmAnalyticsLtd September 05, 2022 at 13:18
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by WindFarmAnalyticsLtd September 05, 2022 at 13:18
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by WindFarmAnalyticsLtd September 05, 2022 at 13:26
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by Tony September 05, 2022 at 17:33
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by WindFarmAnalyticsLtd September 06, 2022 at 17:17
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by AlasdairPhilips September 07, 2022 at 14:55
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by NatalieM September 08, 2022 at 13:13
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by aarogers September 08, 2022 at 19:53
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by AlasdairPhilips September 10, 2022 at 08:49
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by Tony September 10, 2022 at 11:07
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by AlasdairPhilips September 10, 2022 at 18:13
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)
Posted by Tony September 11, 2022 at 17:25
Report this Comment (Requires Log In)