Pumped Hydro Energy Storage across Australia

Originally posted by raiderup ↑

It has been suggested Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit could get a second life as a hydro dam.Picture: KCGM

WA could become a renewable energy powerhouse while exporting more of its lucrative gas to Asia if it adopted an ambitious Federal Government-backed plan to build new dams throughout the State.
Andrew Blakers, professor of engineering at the Australian National University, will today release a study funded by the Government’s renewable energy agency which shows there are almost 4000 sites in WA — 3000 of them in the Kimberley — suitable for new reservoirs that could be built for pumped hydro electricity storage.
Professor Blakers said the reservoirs would be like “oversized farm dams”, but had the potential to transform the country’s energy mix, with 22,000 sites identified nationally.
He said the Pilbara also had many suitable sites for the new closed-loop reservoir systems which could be linked with wind and solar energy production to make the region “a world-scale renewable energy precinct”.
“This means that instead of shipping iron ore off to China and Japan we could use local wind and solar to reduce the iron oxide to iron and ship the iron instead,” Professor Blakers said.
“It makes no sense to burn gas in WA for electricity when you can sell it for a much higher price in Asian export markets.”
He said some of the biggest sites identified by his research team were at existing mines, and suggested that the Kalgoorlie Super Pit “could have a wonderful second life as a pumped hydro system” when it eventually closed.

https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/the-...use-as-government-eyes-new-dams-ng-b88604981z

Raider

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imo I think the superpit is an excellent example of how to have a dumb idea and try and make something of it.

this is how the thinking seems to go -

oh, we have a big hole - gee, if that was full of water - we could do something with it.

fine

but, you need a few other things - like

another hole - and, a big bugger -- or lots of other little holes

sufficient head to get the pressure for your generation

large generation by some other source to put the water from hole 2 back into hole 1

all this depends on the geography and topography and all of it costs a bomb.

How long did it take to dig the super pit?? - a bloody long time.

the Pilbara - may well be sites there - because it's hilly - not so hilly around Kal - not that sort of hilly anyway.

Then of course - you need lids on your sauce pans - and, that may well be cheap - if you use something like blankets as opposed to sauce pan lids - which - god forbid, I wouldn't like the job of designing something like that.

And, of course - all this in a time of supposed climate change - where IF it's true - we might end up with 100 year droughts in some of these places

I think there is economic value in the super pit - after the gold is finished -- but, only because it's a hole - and, people for some reason might well pay to come and see a big hole.

god knows why - but, they do seem interested.

honestly - if it so far hasn't stacked up for pumped storage and reuse in Tassie with a big market across the ditch - how could it stack up in Kalgoorlie?????