Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

admin
Pinned April 7, 2017

<> Embed

@  Email

Report

Uploaded by user
Germany plans to squeeze hydroelectric power out of a coal mine
<> Embed @  Email Report

Germany plans to squeeze hydroelectric power out of a coal mine

Andrew Dalton, @dolftown

March 17, 2017  

Miners at the Prosper-Haniel site in Bottrop, Germany. AFP/Getty Images

As coal energy falls out of favor in much of the world, one defunct mine in the heart of Germany’s coal country is preparing for a new life as a sustainable power plant. As Bloomberg reports, the Prosper-Haniel mine in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia is scheduled to shut down in 2018 when government coal subsidies end and the operation that has provided jobs for the town of Bottrop since 1974 becomes too expensive to operate. But the town could continue providing power to the region while leading the next wave of renewable energy developments by converting its mine shafts into a pumped hydroelectric storage station.

Similar to a standard hydroelectric power plant, pumped hydroelectric storage stations generate power by releasing water from a reservoir through a turbine to a second reservoir at a lower altitude. Rather than releasing the outflow, however, the water is then stored in the lower reservoir until it can be pumped back up to the top reservoir using cheaper, off-peak power or another renewable energy source. In the case of the Prosper-Haniel plant, the lower reservoir will be made up of more than 16 miles of mine shafts that reach up to 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) deep. The station’s 200 megawatts of hydroelectric power would fit into a mix of biomass, solar and wind power. It’s not a perpetual motion machine, but the water stored in the surface reservoir will effectively act as as backup “battery” that could kick in and fill any gaps in the energy mix whenever the other sources fall short.

As Mother Jones noted in 2014, the idea of a pumped hydroelectric storage facility isn’t exactly new — in fact, there are several already in operation around the US — but the Prosper-Haniel plant would be the first to utilize an abandoned mining site. And if the plant in Bottrop is a success, more mines in the region are expected to be converted as well, creating even more cost-effective energy storage as the country works to hit its goal of 30 percent renewable energy by 2025.

(44)

Pinned onto