Bob LeFridge  1d ago

The Lake Onslow pumped storage project which the Luxon government killed in 2023 may be back on the cards. A consortium led by former Meridian CEO Dr. Keith Turner has had the project accepted for the fast-track process.

Remember the scary costs which were bandied about before National canned the project? Turner says the MBIE estimated costs ballooned because they included items such as life-time operation costs and life-time financing costs.

"The costings have been pretty widely represented in the public arena as sort of $15b-$17b, but those numbers are not correct. If you go to the MBIE project files, the capital cost of the project is somewhere between $8.5b and $10b, depending on how big a bottom pond you have. Those $15b to $17b numbers were not the capital cost at all."

https://archive.ph/GQcbF#selection-1391.4-1391.138

#LakeOnslow #PumpedHydro #NZ

Tina M CaseyJan 23

Old aluminum smelter gives way to pumped hydro energy storage.

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/01/22/rye-on-a-roll-us-developer-greenlit-for-massive-pumped-hydro-energy-storage-project-on-brownfield/

#energy #energystorage #hydropower #pumpedhydro #water #waterresources #ldes #renewableenergy #renewables #waterpower #greenenergy #cleanenergy #sdg7 #battery #batteries #reservoirs #rivers #us #energypolicy

Massive Energy Storage Project Greenlit For Brownfield

The US is one step closer to adding 1.2 gigawatts of pumped hydropower storage to its renewable energy profile.

CleanTechnica
Tina M CaseyJan 23

Old aluminum smelter gives way to pumped hydro energy storage.

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/01/22/rye-on-a-roll-us-developer-greenlit-for-massive-pumped-hydro-energy-storage-project-on-brownfield/

#energy #energystorage #hydropower #pumpedhydro #water #waterresources #ldes #renewableenergy #renewables #waterpower #greenenergy #cleanenergy #sdg7 #battery #batteries #reservoirs #rivers #us #energypolicy

Massive Energy Storage Project Greenlit For Brownfield

The US is one step closer to adding 1.2 gigawatts of pumped hydropower storage to its renewable energy profile.

CleanTechnica
BigDOct 24

Let us see how this pans out.
As Winston Churchill famously said once.
“Never, never, never give up.”

#LakeOnslow
#battery
#pumpedhydro
#electricity
#NZPol

Group to lodge fast track consent bid for axed Lake Onslow hydro project https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/576852/group-to-lodge-fast-track-consent-bid-for-axed-lake-onslow-hydro-project

Group to lodge fast track consent bid for axed Lake Onslow hydro project

A private consortium plans to lodge a fast-track consent application for the pumped hydro storage scheme in the "next week or two".

RNZ
DroppieOct 7
https://reneweconomy.com.au/snowy-2-0-energy-storage-for-one-cent-per-person-per-day/

Thank you Andrew Blakers [professor of engineering, Australian National University] ✅ Personally i remain excited by the huge prospects availed by Strayan #PumpedHydro, not least ofc being #SnowyHydro2, & i am so thoroughly sick of the MSM pointscoring superficiality of cheap potshots at transient project difficulties. It's a major engineering project, you fuckheads, & by definition involves many uncertainties that could only be quantified & resolved on the job... just like ALL major engineering projects. It's what we engineers do, ffs... scope designs, build in contingencies, but well aware that unforeseen problems are inevitable & grist to our mill. The point is that the final objective is so massively important for our decarbonised future, decade after decade, long after the temporary construction challenges were overcome.

Fuck off, pig-ignorant naysayers. 🤬🖕

#AusPol #WhyIsLabor #HahahahaLiebs #NatsAreNuts #GreensYEAH #ClimateCrisis #NonLinear #TippingPoints #PositiveFeedbackLoops #FossilFools #RenewableEnergy #ChangeTheSystem #StateCapture #RightToProtest #Biodiversity #WeAreTotallyFscked #Misanthropy #Karma #NativeForests #StopLoggingNativeForests #FsckCapitalism #CognitiveDissonance
Snowy 2.0: Energy storage for one cent per person per day

The cost increases means that Snowy 2.0 has gone from bargain of the century to merely a very good technical and economic investment. 

Renew Economy
Henri HornSep 17, 2025
300MW / 3,5 GWh #PumpedHydro plant #Riedl starts construction at the Danube river near Passau, Bavaria. Cost 400 million €, to be operational in 2031/2032. www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/passa...

Pumpspeicher Riedl: Dieses Kra...
Pumpspeicher Riedl: Dieses Kraftwerk wird so leistungsstark wie 50 Windräder

An der Donau bei Passau beginnt der Bau des größten Pumpspeicherkraftwerks in Bayern. Für das Projekt sind 400 Millionen Euro veranschlagt.

Süddeutsche Zeitung
Bob LeFridge  Sep 3, 2025

Is there life left in the Lake Onslow project? While Luxon's lot kiboshed the scheme, a private consortium is sniffing about and seeking investor interest.

The property owner, Richard Hore of Beaumont Station, says "Hopefully, the new fast-track legislation would help get any proposed project under way quickly."

Fast track... the developer's magic salve for those pesky environmental concerns.

https://archive.ph/NOtdK

#NZPol #LakeOnslow #PumpedHydro

Allen Tien, MD, MHS mdlogix.com 94,698 田一彦Aug 30, 2025
www.linkedin.com/posts/andrew... #PumpedHydro

Off river pumped hydro energy ...
Off river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is extraordinarily abundant and cheap, and has low environmental impact. There are 0.8 million sites to choose from, equivalent to 2,000,000,000,000 EV… | Andrew Blakers AO

Off river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is extraordinarily abundant and cheap, and has low environmental impact. There are 0.8 million sites to choose from, equivalent to 2,000,000,000,000 EV batteries. This is 200X more than required to support 10 billion affluent and fully decarbonised people. Problematical sites can be avoided. Off-river PHES require no new dams on rivers. PHES requires LESS land, water and mining than batteries. Energy storage intensity for premium sites is 10-100 kWh/m2 compared with 15 kWh/m2 for utility batteries and 4 kWh/m2 for EV car parking. Rock to form PHES reservoir walls is scooped from the bed of the reservoir. About 200 kg is required per kWh of storage, and this lasts for 100 years. The amount of rock required to support complete global decarbonisation could fit inside half a teacup per person per day. PHES uses LESS water than batteries (including mining, metal refining & manufacturing). PHES requires ~700 litres/kWh. This water goes up and down between the reservoirs for 100 years. Water consumption required to support complete global decarbonisation is 1-2 litres per person per day, to cover initial fill & evaporation losses. Capital cost of PHES is much LESS than batteries: about US$10-40/kWh for 100-year storage. Together, PHES and batteries solve energy storage. PHES provides storage for  overnight, days & seasons, while batteries cover short term high-power storage. https://lnkd.in/ehY-cADK The image is a 500 GWh Class AAA site in West Virginia

Wolf-Peter SchillJul 17, 2025

1/ 🦆🐫 When the camel meets the duck: how storage patterns have changed in 🇩🇪

Cool new illustration on the #OpenEnergyTracker: average daily operations of pumped hydro storage in Germany since 2015. A little 🧵
#storage #pumpedhydro #duckcurve

Climate Solutions NewsMay 28, 2025

Pumped hydro is great—if you’ve got a mountain.

RheEnergise’s solution works on hills, thanks to a fluid 2.5x denser than water.
That opens up energy storage in far more locations, at lower cost and impact.
Pilot site now live in Devon.

https://climatesolutions.news/spotlight/rethinking-gravity-rheenergise-brings-pumped-hydro-to-the-hills

#ClimateSolutions #CleanTech #PumpedHydro #EnergyStorage #UKInnovation

Rethinking Gravity: RheEnergise Brings Pumped Hydro to the Hills

RheEnergise aims to reshape energy storage solutions by replacing water with a denser fluid for enhanced pumped hydro systems.

Climate Solutions News