Renowned Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard teams up with TV broadcaster and science journalist Sam Pauly for an epic, EV-powered journey across Switzerland to learn about the critical role of hydropower in a carbon-neutral future
– stopping first at the breathtaking Nant de Drance pumped-storage facility
– then discussing with President of Swiss Confederation
Hydropower is basically at potential now. Best estimates are 2% more. Creating a reservoir has a massive initial environmental impact. The climate is getting dryer with no sign of reverting.
We need more solar and modern AKWs.
Hydropower is only one part of the puzzle of renewable energy. The problem with solar and wind (as well as many others like wave power or similar) is that they are only controllable to certain extent – if there is wind but you don’t need as much power, you just switch some wind turbines to “neutral”. In the reverse situation however, at some stage you can’t just switch more wind turbines on, or add more solar panels.
However, there always has to be the same amount of power being fed into the grid as is used. And that’s where a pumped storage power plant comes in. If there is more electricity produced than needed, this plant will “charge its battery” by pumping water from the lower to the upper lake. If more electricity is needed, the turbines will be reversed and the water flows from the upper to the lower lake, thus creating electricty.
As such, these pumped storage power plants are not just simply hydropower plants, but play an essential part in making more renewable energy possible by offsetting the imbalance in the production of solar and wind-based energy.
3 comments
Renowned Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard teams up with TV broadcaster and science journalist Sam Pauly for an epic, EV-powered journey across Switzerland to learn about the critical role of hydropower in a carbon-neutral future
– stopping first at the breathtaking Nant de Drance pumped-storage facility
– then discussing with President of Swiss Confederation
Hydropower is basically at potential now. Best estimates are 2% more. Creating a reservoir has a massive initial environmental impact. The climate is getting dryer with no sign of reverting.
We need more solar and modern AKWs.
Hydropower is only one part of the puzzle of renewable energy. The problem with solar and wind (as well as many others like wave power or similar) is that they are only controllable to certain extent – if there is wind but you don’t need as much power, you just switch some wind turbines to “neutral”. In the reverse situation however, at some stage you can’t just switch more wind turbines on, or add more solar panels.
However, there always has to be the same amount of power being fed into the grid as is used. And that’s where a pumped storage power plant comes in. If there is more electricity produced than needed, this plant will “charge its battery” by pumping water from the lower to the upper lake. If more electricity is needed, the turbines will be reversed and the water flows from the upper to the lower lake, thus creating electricty.
As such, these pumped storage power plants are not just simply hydropower plants, but play an essential part in making more renewable energy possible by offsetting the imbalance in the production of solar and wind-based energy.