POWERTOWER – Hydraulic Energy Storage

摘要

The necessary move from fossil and nuclear power production to alternative sustainable energy sources leads to a growing demand of energy storage. For this purpose storage technologies have to be expanded and developed. Only this will guarantee a security of supply with a large proportion of volatile energy suppliers. The Powertower is one possibility, which is currently being developed at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. It represents an innovative hydraulic energy storage, which is based on the technology of pumped storage plants. Installed underground it is independent from the topography. In contrast to pumped storage plants, Powertowers can be built in this way close to the decentralized energy production of wind and solar power with a high efficiency. Hence power transfer losses can be significantly reduced. Both single Powertowers and clusters of Powertowers can be built for different requirements. Therefore this new type of hydraulic energy storage could make an important contribution to balance electricity supply and demand and to stabilize the grid in future.