Don't understand why we aren't using existing dams this way This giant 'water battery' under the Alps could be a game-changer for renewable energy in Europe - CNN Beginning operations last month, the water battery, called Nant de Drance, is a pumped storage hydropower plant that provides the same energy storage capacity as 400,000 electric car batteries. Located high in the Swiss Alps in the canton of Valais, the plant is equipped with agile, reversible turbines that offer new levels of flexibility, says Robert Gleitz, a delegate of the board of directors of Nant de Drance: with the flick of a switch, the plant can go from storing energy to providing electricity.
It’s been decades since I toured the power plant at Niagara Falls but if I remember correctly they do pump water back up when they have an excess of electricity.
We have a lake/dam/power generator here in Oklahoma that does that. A closer look: GRDA’s Salina Pumped Storage Project
There was a plan to do this for the Hoover as well about 4-5 years ago. Take California's excess solar and wind and pump it back in for storage. Don't know if it was ever implemented though.
