Europe’s wind power potential is massive, but what happens when the wind isn’t blowing? The answer may lay in tapping into Norway’s hydro resources.
While the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) predicts wind power in the EU will jump to 150 GW capacity in the period 2030 to 2050, balancing services will be required to make up for any shortfall during widespread calm conditions.
Researchers at SINTEF are investigating how Norwegian hydropower could act as a ‘blue-green’ backup battery for European wind power. An especially attractive aspect is it wouldn’t require new hydro facilities to be built. By renovating existing plants and adding pump storage technology, this could provide an increase in power capacity of between 11 and 18 GW.
According to SINTEF, the least expensive way to store solar and wind energy is to convert large hydropower stations into pumped storage utilities; where turbines that alternate between acting as pumps and generating electricity are installed.
Wind turbines elsewhere could supply the power for pumped storage and when those turbines experience a calm spell, the power can be “reclaimed” by the release of water and re-harvesting that energy.
However, SINTEF says a key issue is whether a coordinated solution such as this will be cost effective as currently the only transmission infrastructure in place between countries are what are termed ‘cross-border trading cables’.
“Since grid construction takes such a long time, it’s important to find the answer to this question now, so that we can plan in time”, says SINTEF’s Daniel Huertas-Hernando. The body has received funds from the Research Council of Norway to further investigate the concept.
SINTEF is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia and also acts as an incubator for new industrial companies.
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