is destined for a renewable
energy test facility in Lubbock, Texas where DNV-GL
will perform third party testing on the IFB as it shifts
wind power daily.

On the cost side, Dr. Klaus
Krueger, Head of Plant &
Product Safety and Innovation Management at Voith
said no one is comparing the
raw material costs of chemical batteries to pumped
hydro energy storage but
they should be. Krueger has
been traveling all over the
world giving seminars about
pumped storage to those
interested in learning about
it. When he shows them the
the life cycle cost comparisons including CO2 footprints
their eyes light up.

“They have a lot of a-ha moments,” he said.

Krueger said that the cost of utilitizing hydro storage capacity
can be almost as low as zero dollars per k Wh whereas “the rock
bottom cost of Li-Ion battery storage power plants is about $70 to

$80 per k Wh just because of raw materials.”He added: “For instance Canada has opportunities for stor-age capacity at almost zero cost. Why? They can connect exist-ing lakes with different elevations and do pumped storage, so thestorage is already there in the reservoirs with natural infows”Krueger recommends that once a utility decides it needs LDS itshould frst look to its neighbors to determine if any hydro storageexists or could exist at minimal cost. If neighboring states or coun-tries have signifcant storage capacity, then building interconnec-tors is the best course of action in terms of costs and revenues.

“Germany is investing in transmission lines,” he said. Adding that the country is building interconnectors between itself
and Norway and Sweden because those regions have massive
amounts of hydro storage that can beneft the German grid.

Krueger acknowledged that pumped hydro cannot solve all
energy storage issues but does believe it can be used in more places than utilities are currently aware. He said that in the U.S. there
is “Tesla hype,” which hinders discussions on pumped hydro as an
option for energy storage.