Small pumped storage plant
Small pumped storage power plants can be installed on rivers and within infrastructures such as B. Drinking water supply networks and artificial snowmaking systems are built. Power plants of this type contribute to decentralized energy storage and enable flexible electricity generation . They enable the decentralized integration of wind energy and photovoltaics into the power grid.
technology
Small hydropower plants with an installed capacity between 1 MW and 50 MW can be built with storage capacities. Pumped storage plants have an upper and a lower basin that serve as storage. The following reservoirs can be used as storage:
- Artificial lakes (created by a dam or weir of a small hydropower plant or a flood protection system) and natural lakes (including new lakes that are created by the melting of the glaciers).
- Storage basins within infrastructures such as B. artificial snowmaking systems, water supply networks or irrigation systems. Newly built infrastructures with storage basins, which z. B. become necessary because of climate change, can be combined with electricity production and thus used as multi-purpose infrastructures.
- Unused galleries (e.g. inside former mines or military bunkers).
The potential of small pumped storage power plants has been evaluated for the area of Switzerland . Only existing and planned reservoirs were considered, because on the one hand they reduce investment costs and on the other hand objections for environmental reasons can be avoided as far as possible. The total installed capacity of small pumped storage power plants in 2011 could be tripled to ninefold if the institutional framework conditions are adjusted accordingly.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Crettenand, N. (2012) "The facilitation of mini and small hydropower in Switzerland: shaping the institutional framework. With a particular focus on storage and pumped-storage schemes". École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). PhD Thesis N ° 5356. http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/176337?ln=en