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Pumped hydro is a great idea, since it is a technology that is an excellent complement to renewables
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True, but one listener who obviously knew the full process and had thought it through indicated that it does provide an insurance backup, but is very inefficient.
When pushed about it, he mentioned a lot of the "spare/off peak" electricity used to pump the water back up the hill would actually be coming from coal, not renewables, ( as the pumps will be near the snowy system ) and there arent many nearby renewables.
When you factor in all of the transmission/mechanical losses, the carbon footprint per KWhr for the final product goes through the roof.
Be interesting to see what those numbers really are, and if they could affect our emissions targets.
Andrew