Pumping water up is a super old idea, but as far as I know you'll need some natural terrain to build it efficiently.

And environmentally, that tends to be pretty bad for a long time. Looks more peaceful than a fracking site, but it's still pretty bad.

There is no magic solution. I'm happy to see all those efforts, but am missing a mention of saving energy. In the age of record-setting data centers for AI training, that's not a popular aspect to mention. Though at least we get higher res more realistic artificial cat videos out of it.

	▲	pfdietz 12 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's only bad if it's placed on and disrupts an existing river. But PHES can be placed far from any river, even in a desert. https://www.whitepinepumpedstorage.com/ I suspect this project may not happen, what with batteries getting so cheap.

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pfdietz 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You just need some change in elevation over moderately short distances. You don't even need rivers.