Pumped Hydro More Compatible with Renewables than Nuclear: Energy Director

The reservoir of the Gorona wind-hydro-pumped station in El Hierro, Spain, on March 14, 2016. Desiree Martin/AFP via Getty Images

Pumped hydro is better than nuclear in complementing renewables in Australia’s energy transition, according to the director of a hybrid energy company.

At a recent inquiry hearing on nuclear energy, Chris Baker, the director and Chief Technology Officer of Sunshine Hydro, provided his insight on new energy technologies and the role of nuclear energy in the net zero transition.

Sunshine Hydro has been working on a hybrid energy solution that integrates wind and solar with deep energy storage in the form of pump hydro. This type of energy configuration connects two water reservoirs at different elevations.

Excess energy can be used to pump water to the upper reservoir for storage. This water can later be released and flow back to the lower reservoir to generate electricity when needed.

Snowy 2.0, which is expected to commence operation in 2028, is a typical project built with pump hydro technology.

While Baker acknowledged that nuclear power plants could provide base load—the minimum amount of electric power that an electrical grid needs over a period of time—24/7, he said pump hydro combined with renewables was a better solution.

The director explained that pump hydro had the ability to generate a base load like nuclear and could be dispatched very quickly when needed.

He gave the example of the Wivenhoe Power Station in Queensland, which could inject 500 megawatts of electricity into the grid in around 16 seconds.

In addition, Baker said pump hydro was cheaper to build than nuclear.

“Pumped hydro is the cheapest form of energy storage at the moment,” he said.

Sunshine Hydro Chairman Michael Myer also gave the example of the Gen X Kidston pumped hydro project in Queensland, which he said had a significantly lower capital cost than a nuclear power station.

Nuclear’s Impact on Renewables

Another advantage of pumped hydro, according to Baker, is that it can be turned off as required.

Meanwhile, the director said a nuclear power plant needed to be running all the time, and it was difficult to shut it down, which he said would have a considerable impact on renewable energy production.

The inability to turn off means the extra electricity produced by those facilities would squeeze out the energy produced by renewable plants in the power grid.

Using an AP1000 nuclear plant as an example, the director said it would produce 150 megawatts at its lowest possible capacity (15 percent).

Baker said this amount of power would cause 75,000 rooftop solar panels to be turned off.

Consequently, having a nuclear industry would be a challenge with the current high penetration of rooftop solar.

According to the government’s most recent data, around four million Australian homes have rooftop solar.

“Somewhere, there needs to be other energy that doesn’t come into the market if nuclear is there,” Baker said.