An Overview of the Capital Costs of Firming Wind Farms with Pumped Hydro

By Michael Bowden; IEng(Electronics-UK);CPL;CQP and Craig Brooking; MBA; BE(Civil); FAIC, Dip; formerly FIEAust; CPEng.

The Conclusions:

Over the next 15 years, NSW will decommission four of its five coal fired power stations which will dramatically reduce the availability of reliable and dispatchable electrical power.

According to the NSW Government, the reduced capacity will be replaced by wind and solar farms firmed with batteries, gas and pumped hydro. This paper has demonstrated that renewables firmed by pumped hydro is massively expensive and high-risk commercially and technically. The most cost-effective and technically feasible solution is to replace the four decommissioned coal fired power stations with modern HELE USC coal plants which would deliver significant advantages over the firmed renewables strategy.

Read the whole paper: https://saltbushclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/costs-of-firming-wind-with-hydro.pdf [PDF, 270 kB]

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