Voith Hydro, a supplier of hydropower and pumped storage equipment, and Swedish company Mine Storage, a specialist in the field of underground pumped storage concepts, announce a development partnership to become the forerunners in a new market for underground pumped storage – offering so-called mine storages.
The Paris Climate Agreement has made clear that to prevent a global climate collapse, global warming needs to be limited to a maximum of 1.5°C. To achieve this, it is necessary to focus on the use of clean, renewable, and resource-conserving technologies in energy generation. Hence, there is a need for the transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon and sustainable alternatives, a move that Voith Hydro and Mine Storage aim to help facilitate.
For the global phase-out of fossil fuels, large-scale electricity storage is needed. More than 90% of energy storage is provided by pumped storage hydropower, as it allows for a quick response with incomparable flexibility to fluctuations in energy demand. This enables the integration of volatile renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar power, into the grid and stabilizes it. With the current stage of technology, it is the only possibility to store energy in an economically viable, large-scale way.
Mine Storage focuses on the rapidly emerging market for large-scale, fast-responding energy storage and plans to build sustainable pumped storage facilities in underground mines. These are called mine storages and can act as “batteries” that help balance the electric grid so that much more production from wind and solar energy can be added without creating a volatile electric grid that is prone to blackouts. There are more than one million abandoned mines in the world, and with mature, proven energy storage technology, mine storage can be a game-changer for the environment.
