I imagine the thaw/freeze cycle would be hell on the equipment to run pumped hydro storage.

Are there extant succesful examples of pumped hydro in cold regions?

kalleboo 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You have Juktan in northern Sweden which was pumped hydro from 1978-1996, and now they want to re-build it back into pumped hydro again https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juktans_kraftstation

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7952 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Surely the turbines could be fed from subsurface water that is not frozen.

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bryanlarsen 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A reversable pump-turbine is not significantly different from a standard hydro generation turbine, and there are tons of examples of those operating in cold regions.

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gpm 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Are there extant succesful examples of pumped hydro in cold regions?

There's some pumped hydro at Niagara falls in Canada, which is far enough North that it should see a bit of a that/freeze cycle but is still a relatively mild climate.

Don't know anything about what issues this does/doesn't present to them, just happen to know it exists.

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numbsafari 5 hours ago | parent [-]

For reference, Niagara Falls is at roughly the same latitude as Barcelona and Milan. Vääksy, Finland, is approximately 1,250 miles (2k km) north of there, slightly north of Anchorage, Alaska.

	▲	gpm 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Latitude is a poor point of comparison here, North America tends to be substantially colder than Europe at the same latitude. Or concretely Niagara Falls goes from an average low of -6.44 C in February to 21.0 C in July. Barcelona an average low of 4 C in January to 20.2 C in August (according to the internet). But yes, it's warmer than Finland, just cold enough to see something of a freeze that cycle.