In the past, pumped storage projects in Thuringia were called off - is there a renaissance for electricity storage now?
Erfurt/Berlin (dpa/th) - The debate about the construction of pumped storage power plants in Thuringia is moving again. After projects like the one at the Schmalwassertalsperre in the district of Gotha were called off in recent years, the energy company Vattenfall now wants to examine a project near Saalfeld in eastern Thuringia. For this purpose, a project company for pumped storage power plants, WSK Puls GmbH, was acquired as a subsidiary of the construction group Strabag, Vattenfall announced on Monday in Berlin.
According to Vattenfall, WSK Puls GmbH, based in Erfurt, has so far been responsible for the project "Water storage power plant peopleberg/Probstzella" (Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district) in the Thuringian Slate Mountains. The idea for the project has existed for about ten years and has already gone through a spatial planning process.
A feasibility study is now conceivable, the energy company explained. However, based on current information, a possible decision to build a pumped storage plant would not be made before the end of this decade. A nominal output of 400 megawatts is conceivable. Thuringia already has a storage capacity based on hydropower of currently 1500 megawatts.
Pumped storage plants serve as energy storage. They use electricity when it is cheaply available to pump water to a higher basin. When electricity is needed, the water is drained and drives turbines to generate electricity.
Vattenfall already operates one of the most powerful pumped storage power plants in Germany with 1060 megawatts in Goldisthal in southern Thuringia (Sonneberg district) - other smaller ones at the Saale reservoirs in Thuringia. At times it was said that the pumped storage business model had become difficult due to changed energy market structures. But now the general conditions have changed, according to a spokesman for the company.
"Pumped storage is of enormous importance for a fossil-free energy system of the future, especially with regard to grid stability, security of supply and the integration of the ever-growing, volatile power generation from sun and wind," said Peter Apel, Managing Director of Vattenfall Wasserkraft GmbH.
According to previous planning as of 2016, the people mountain/Probstzella project envisages a head of 264 meters with an upper reservoir containing up to 4.1 million cubic meters of water.
