Pump Hydro Underground to Store Wind Power
CEO Douglas is not applying for stimulus funding.
BlackRock Inc, an asset manager with more than $1 trillion under management, is an investor. Each 1,000 megawatt storage facility will cost $2 billion.
Riverbank CEO Douglas said the company has already had a lot of interest in power contracts, and he expects to turn this into power purchase agreements. PPAs could be used to help finance the $2 billion each 1,000 MW project costs.
“We think we can procure unwanted wind energy at night in the off-peak, surplus wind energy, and create a 100% green capacity product to sell the next day,” he said. “In that case, it is 100% renewable, and we will have a renewable energy credit to resell.
It’s not a bad investment. The turbines use no fossil fuels, and each facility should last 100 years.
If each 1,000 MW project produces for 100 years, it should pay for the initial $2 Billion investment many times over, while creating jobs and giving green energy developers a solid market for their power.
Douglas points out:
“Even if we were buying coal at night for our pumping, there’s still a huge carbon win here, because we’re precluding the need for a new fossil peaker plant.”
Related stories:
Baseload Wind Cheaper than Fossil Fuels
Mining Hydrothermal Vents For Electricity
Images from Riverbank , Flikr user ben, and Steve Jurvetson
Via Energy Bulletin
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