Scattered across Australia there are over 50,000 abandoned mines and instead of letting them go to waste Genex, an ASX-listed company, is planning to create the world’s first pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES) system. Simon Kidston is the executive director of Genex says, “We’re not aware of any examples anywhere else in the world where there is a large pumped storage system, or any efficient storage mechanism, with a renewable generation component attached to it – not on the scale we’re talking about.”

99% of the market is composed of pumped hydro so there is a big request for this type of energy source. It allows for energy to be stored when it’s not in demand, and during peak times high amounts of energy can be released to meet the new demand.

The Genex system is expected to shift 2,000 Olympic swimming pools worth of water in each cycle, which is 5 million cubic meters of water. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency awarded $4 million to Genex to support the work of this project. It’s estimated that such projects will be more popular in the future as it’s expected 50% of the energy reaching the national grid in Australia will be renewable.

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Tags : renewable energy