The current debate in Australia around long term energy security has, in part, focussed on how the national energy market can secure baseload supply in the face of both the retirement of ageing coal fired generators and an increasing uptake of intermittent, renewable generation facilities (such as solar and wind).
The focus on reliability of energy supply has led to calls for additional dispatchable supply, in particular the development of pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) facilities, and a number of feasibility assessments are currently underway in connection with the development of approximately 4.5GW of capacity.
The two most significant PHES projects being investigated are:
CLICK HERE for details of each of these projects, together with those for a number of stand-alone hydro projects which are in varying stages of development.
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