Engineering News 28 June 2010.
The Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) has issued a request for expressions of interest from consulting firms able to conduct a prefeasibility study into the development of a pumped-storage scheme in the mountainous Southern African country, which is surrounded on all sides by its power stressed neighbour, South Africa…
Pumped-storage schemes are often controversial, because on the one hand, building big dams can have a huge negative environmental impact, but on the other hand, having the ability to store large amounts of dispatchable energy avoids or delays building new peaking power plants.
Energy storage systems are also necessary to even out the power generated by wind and solar generators when these start contributing significantly to our power mix.
On balance, I believe that the pluses of pumped storage schemes such as the Lesotho one outweigh the minuses.
Pumped-storage schemes are often controversial, because on the one hand, building big dams can have a huge negative environmental impact, but on the other hand, having the ability to store large amounts of dispatchable energy avoids or delays building new peaking power plants.
Energy storage systems are also necessary to even out the power generated by wind and solar generators when these start contributing significantly to our power mix.
On balance, I believe that the pluses of pumped storage schemes such as the Lesotho one outweigh the minuses.