According to NPR’s report, the US San Diego Water Administration plans to use the San Vicente Reservoir to store solar energy in water batteries, thereby maximizing the city’s renewable energy potential.
Cities in California have sunny days, which is perfect for providing renewable energy. While the proposed project is aimed at storing 4,000 megawatt-hours of energy per day, it includes the information that it can provide energy to 135,000 homes after the sun goes down. To make this possible, the San Diego Water Authority plans to create a smaller upper reservoir just above the existing San Vicente Reservoir and connect them with a tunnel system in the form of an underground power station.
The project is described on the San Diego County Water Administration’s website: “During off-peak periods when electricity is cheap and renewables from wind and solar facilities exceed demand, the turbines will pump water into the upper reservoir and act as a battery of potential energy stored there.”
According to the details of the project, during times of high energy use in the region, the system will discharge the energy stored in the water in the upper reservoir, allowing it to flow downhill through the turbines. The system will be closed circuit, that is, the water here will not be consumed while energizing the local grid.
Systems like this are called pumped-storage hydropower, and this principle is already being applied at sites around the country, according to NPR. Many were built in the 1970s and 1980s to store nuclear energy. The new project will take up to 10 years to be approved, planned and built.
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