Originally Posted by
Keith Outten
We built one of the countries largest pumped storage facilities in Virginia back in the 70's in Bath County. Four concrete tubes 50 foot in diameter with a thousand foot drop from the upper to the lower lake. It was a monster job but it has paid off big time though the years because we have four nuclear reactors generating electricity here. It takes more energy to pump the water from the lower to the upper lake than we generate from the facility but we use excess nuclear power at night, nuclear plants can't be throttled back like coal or gas plants.
I don't see any way that pumped storage facilities will be viable in the future as nuclear powered electrical production becomes ancient history. Hydrogen is the fuel of the future, there isn't any other way IMO.
Solar and wind, but especially solar, have times when they're overgenerating. During that time, (mid-day) water could be pumped to a storage facility and then used for generating at night.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.