Dutch Look Offshore For Innovative Hydro Scheme

摘要

Dutch engineers are developing an electricity pumped-storage scheme that will use the North Sea as the upper reservoir, avoiding environmental objections to onshore dikes. After desktop studies convinced them an energy island is viable, they are now looking for serious money for more detailed investigations. Conventional pumped-storage plants use surplus power to pump water to a higher level, releasing it through turbines when electricity is needed. But instead of building an upper storage lake, the Dutch would encircle 40 sq kilometers of sea with dikes and dredge the bed within to create a lower reservoir. Excess energy from wind turbines would pump seawater out of the reservoir. When the wind doesn't blow, water would flow back to the reservoir through turbines.