Seawater could provide the solution to South Australia's power woes
by Roger Dargaville for the Conversation from Environment | The Guardian on (#2G4QH)
The state lacks the rainfall, rivers and mountains to run a conventional hydro system, but the ocean could step in
The federal government has announced a $2 billion plan to expand the iconic Snowy Hydro scheme. It will carry out a feasibility study into the idea of adding "pumped hydro" storage capacity, which it says could power up to 500,000 homes.
Hydro is one of the oldest and most mature electricity generation technologies. And pumped hydro storage - in which water is pumped uphill for later use, rather than simply flowing downriver through a hydro power station - is the dominant form of energy storage globally.
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