[OT] Pumped hydro

 With all the discussion of pumped hydro recently, I thought folks might
be interested in this. It's a proposal to store excess energy from
Europe's wind installations. Apparently Europe has enough pumped hydro
storage capacity to run for four weeks on a full "charge," though most
of that capacity is in Norway. To make it practical to use as storage
for the entire continent, some folks are proposing a high-voltage DC
"continental grid" to make it practical to distribute that energy
throughout Europe. The source article comes from The Economist, though
all I have read myself is the summary on this web site.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/uniting_europes.php

  R.H. Allen wrote:

I don't know how practical it would be but a continent spanning
DC grid might generate power from geomagnetic flux from solar
winds. This kind of thing is reported to be a major problem for
long AC lines during sunspot activity but it might be a plus for
DC lines.

Anthony

 

"R.H. Allen" wrote:


The idea that there's 4 weeks worth of pumped hydro storage for all of Europe
sounds very questionable to me.

Graham

 On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:18:34 +0100, Eeyore


Hi voltage DC isnt at suitable for a power grid,as the cost of the
Convertor stations are way higher than simple AC transformers for the
same MVA rating.
It is very good for very long point to point links where the cable
costs are extreme,such as undersea cables or underground cables.
The problem with pumped hydro is mainly the pumping losses, the
generating losses and the transmission losses when the dams are a long
way from the power sources.
Norway is extremely fortunate to have very large hydro reserves,but
sadly this is the exception and not the norm.

 Mauried wrote:

I still haven't seen the original article from The Economist, but I have
the impression that this is exactly what the DC lines would be used for
-- very long distance transmission. A minimal number of converter
stations would tap into it and distribute AC on a regional basis.


Which is why they're talking about doing it with energy that will be
generated where and when Mother Nature dictates. If it can be done
economically, storing that energy with losses seems far better than just
throwing it away.