UKs 1st waterless hydro-energy storage to offer 2.5 times more power [Video]

RheEnergise, a UK-based energy startup developing new high-density hydro storage technology, is setting up a 500 kilowatt (kW) demonstrator at a mining site near Plymouth. The first-of-its-kind facility aims to help decarbonize the site’s energy consumption and is supported by the government’s Longer Duration Energy Storage (LODES) Demonstration Programme. 

Water-based energy storage isn’t a radically new concept. Additional power generated from renewable energy plants can be used to pump water up from a lower reservoir to one located at a higher level. 

When the energy supply is low, water from the higher reservoir is released back to the lower one, where it passes through turbines generating electricity. While the technology seems straightforward, Switzerland spent 14 years constructingone such energy storage system in the …