Greens don’t like dams anymore. Good luck trying to get one built.
Is it actually energy storage? If you take heat away from water to make ice you are actually removing energy.
I hate to rain on everyone’s parade but the Kinzua (Kin-Zoo) reservoir had little to with either flood control or power generation. You need to think more sinister. I know. I grew up there.
Georgia Power has had an example of this in operation on the Oconee River for a couple of decades.
In the day time,
water flowing from Lake Oconee through Wallace Dam on its way to Lake Sinclair spins turbines to generate electricity to help supply the daytime base load.
At night,
when excess generating capacity is available, pumps send that same water from Lake Sinclair back upstream into Lake Oconee.
I am glad to see the quality of responses on this thread!
I will add a couple of thoughts about the Altoona Mirror article because it does raise questions that are not easily answered.
I believe that the system as described by the environmental group is based on outdated technology and I agree that the use of water taken from a high quality trout stream might cause degradation. I'm thinking about depletion of oxygen content and increase in temperature as it is pooled for later use. Wouldn't a closed system reusing water over and over (which this likely is as described by the hydro engineer) work just as well since the only requirement is water and gravity (and, yes, a pump and pipes etc.)?
The article does state that the company proposing the project didn't respond to inquiries. Too bad, they had the opportunity to inform the public but didn't and the enviros were ready with their finger pointing machine. Their statement...
"Kotala said the fact the facility would offer no net gain to power production and "the only thing that would be generated is money for the owners" was another reason the conservation groups were against it."
Pretty well condenses their agenda into one line.