From pv magazine ESS news place
Pumped Hydro (PHES) has long been the dominant energy storage technology worldwide, but today’s fast-growing battery energy storage fleet looks set to take the throne. According to some industry figures, the move to the top in terms of installed gigawatts will likely happen as soon as next year, as batteries become as mature and affordable an asset class as the much more established PHES.
Meanwhile, the global PHES pipeline of projects continues to grow. One of the latest big announcements comes from Chilean utility Colbún. The company has unveiled plans to tap the Pacific Ocean for its proposed 800 MW pumped storage hydropower plant in the northern part of the country.
PHES facilities store and generate electricity by moving water between two reservoirs at different heights. Colbún’s proposed Paposo Pumping Central energy storage project aims to create a power plant that will circulate desalinated water between the lower and upper reservoirs to store and release excess renewable energy.
Colbún submitted the environmental impact study for the Paposo project, which, if approved, would become the first electricity generation initiative in Latin America based on a closed circuit of desalinated water recirculation. It would give almost half a million households access to clean and sustainable energy.
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