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A team of Michigan Tech professors and students are working with Upper Peninsula lawmakers and energy experts on the problem of storing large quantities of energy–and the solution may literally be right below our feet.
The MTU Social Sciences Department gave a special presentation Friday called “Liabilities into Assets: Enhancing Electrical Grid and Community Resilience Through Repurposing Decommissioned Mines into Underground Pump Facilities (UPSH).”
Assistant Professor Roman Sidortsov says the concept behind using the water inside the flooded mines for storing energy is actually quite simple. “It’s a very, very simple, almost ancient technology,” he said. “It’s been successfully deployed for 100 years.”
Pump storage can be described as simply pumping water into an elevated bucket and then running that water through a hose to a lower bucket with a hydroelectric turbine at the end of the hose, which creates electricity.
By applying the same concept connected to the grid, energy supply can be stored and called upon as demand increases.
Sidortsov, along with his colleagues and students, gave a series of presentations explaining the process and its benefits and challenges.
Though it’s been used for over 100 years all over the world, Sidortsov says the process has yet to be deployed underground. “One of the problems with this technology is that it is very invasive and is often blocked on aesthetic and environmental grounds, so placing it underground would alleviate those concerns,” he said.
The project is being funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
With the right amount of resources, Sidortsov says it’s feasible to have a prototype and wider application in a matter of a few years.
