Unlimited Low-Cost Energy Storage
The International Solar Energy Society (ISES) highlights the potential of pumped-hydro energy storage combined with PV power generation to provide 24/7 power to data centers.
Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES) offers a mature, low-cost, and low-impact solution, constituting 95% of global energy storage. With 820,000 PHES sites worldwide, the combined storage capacity is 86 million GWh, equivalent to the usable storage in 2 trillion electric vehicle batteries.
PHES and batteries provide a complete energy storage solution for solar and wind electricity, with batteries handling short-term high-power storage and PHES covering longer-term storage needs.
High-quality PHES offers energy storage in the size range of 5-5000 GWh at a capital cost 5-10 times lower than batteries (US$8-40) and with a lifetime 10 times longer (150 years).
Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES) provides a vastly available, highly mature, lowest-cost, lowest-impact, longest-lifetime solution.
Author's summary: PHES offers a low-cost energy storage solution.