During the first decade of the 21st century 22 new Advanced Pump Storage units with more than 2400 MW of PS capacity have been installed in Europe to help the grid deal with the intermittency of renewable energy associated with wind and solar energy generation. A number of different types of advanced pumped storage plants (advanced conventional, variable speed and Ternary) have been developed with special features to allow fast reaction time for firming the variable nature of renewable energy generation there. The rate of construction of advanced PS plants continues and is even accelerating in the second decade where projections envision additions of 76 units and more than 11,000 MW of pumped storage capacity. In the US, despite the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) initiatives of the individual States and the resulting growth of wind and solar energy generation, no new significant pump storage plants have been commissioned between 2000 and 2010, two units and 40 MW have been commissioned in 2011, none are yet in the detailed project planning or project construction phase and the projections for additions of pumped storage units in the time period 2012 to 2020 are few. This paper will characterize the drivers leading to the significant growth of Advanced Hydro Pumped Storage in Europe and compare and contrast them to the situation in the US. The analysis will look at the basic energy supply, the characteristics of the variability of the renewable resources, the economic and governmental factors influencing the building of pumped storage plants, and the resulting characteristics of the pumped storage solutions.
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