for pumped hydro... cannot see an issue with a full "lease out"...

for pumped hydro... cannot see an issue with a full "lease out" of the operation for a fixed return... we miss arbitrage opportunities, but get a partial ownership of a high cost asset with very low (effective) rates of risk.

As as far as my un-educated & un-informed knowledge on the operation of hydro goes.. Should the leasee chose to run the plant hard, could your OPEX costs would increase dramatically?

Wind & Solar assets - if we could lock in PPA's... for 70%+ or even complete output, then that is all well and good also... provides a fixed rate of return and allows the banks to use that known / mostly predictable future cash flow to ascertain if we are worthy for additional debt to fund further projects.

If the same was done with a chemical battery though... your assets effective life could be halved or less if a leasee was given the option / ability to push a battery set too close to full discharge too many times. This storage type - IMO - should be kept in our hands.