Our research team was mentioned in an APNews.com article by John Flesher, discussing the opportunities and challenges with pump hydro storage and the growing need for grid-scale energy storage.

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Mr. Flesher wrote:

A recent Michigan Technological University study identified hundreds of abandoned U.S. mines that could host pumped storage, with upper reservoirs at or near the surface and lower ones below ground.

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They are close enough to transmission and distribution infrastructure and to solar and wind generating facilities, the report says.

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“All these holes in the ground are ready to go,” said study co-leader Roman Sidortsov, an energy policy associate professor.” (Link Here)

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Our study case study in Negaunee, Michigan, showed that the mine could be ultra-long duration storage, providing continuous power to 30,000 people for 3.5 months–at a profit–once it is built. Developing some of the mines, selected from 1,000 possible sites, are in the public’s interest to solve problems- using the energy transition as an opportunity to bring a sustainable economic resource to communities that have been abandoned by mining, as they struggle with reclamation and revitalization.

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It’s worth checking Roman Sidortsov’s conversation with other scholars at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation series of discussions with the Environmental Defense Fund about the energy transition and energy justice. Link

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