Closed-loop pumped storage hydropower systems have the lowest potential to add to the problem of global warming when accounting for the full impacts of materials and construction.

This is according to analysis conducted at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

These findings, reported in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, provide insight into how closed-loop pumped storage hydropower — which is not connected to an outside body of water — compares to other grid-scale storage technologies.

The paper, Life Cycle Assessment of Closed-Loop Pumped Storage Hydropower in the United States, was written by Daniel Inman, Gregory Avery, Rebecca Hanes, Dylan Hettinger and Garvin Heath, all of whom are with NREL’s Strategic Energy Analysis Center.

The researchers analyzed the global warming potential (GWP) of energy storage technologies, which stand as a bottleneck that inhibits the end use of renewable electricity generation. Storage can help increase the grid’s ability to accommodate renewables such as wind and solar.

Pumped storage hydropower is an established technology, but limited information is available about GHG emissions associated with its use. The NREL study provides a life cycle assessment of new closed-loop pump storage hydropower in the US and assesses its GWP.

Pumped storage hydropower is compared against four other technologies: compressed-air energy storage (CAES), utility-scale lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), utility-scale lead-acid (PbAc) batteries and vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). Pumped-storage hydropower and CAES are designed for long-duration storage, while batteries are intended to be used for a shorter time frame.

“Closed-loop pumped storage hydropower is shown to be the smallest emitter of greenhouse gases,” Inman said. “Not all energy storage technologies provide the same services. We looked at compressed-air energy storage, which allows for grid-scale energy storage and provides services like grid inertia and resilience. But pumped storage hydropower is about a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions compared to compressed air.”

In examining pumped storage hydropower, the researchers modeled their findings based on 39 preliminary designs from 35 proposed sites in the contiguous US. The average closed-loop pump storage hydropower facility was assumed to have storage capacity of 835MW and an average estimated 2,060GWh of stored energy delivered annually. The base scenario also assumed the electricity mix would entirely come from renewable technologies.

The researchers calculated the GWP attributed to 1kWh of stored electricity delivered to the nearest grid substation connection point. They estimated the GWP for pumped storage hydropower ranges from the equivalent of 58 to 502 grams of carbon dioxide per kWh.

Hydropower offered the lowest GWP on a functional unit basis, followed by LIB, VRFB, CAES, and PbAc. They also determined certain decisions can have a substantive impact. For example, building on a brownfield rather than a greenfield site can reduce the GWP by 20%.

DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office funded the research. NREL is DOE’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy-efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC.

by powerengineeringint