Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have identified about 5,000 sites in Queensland, Tasmania, the Canberra district and the Alice Springs district that are potentially suitable for pumped hydro storage. This adds to the 185 potential sites previously identified in South Australia.
The sites identified so far in the study have a combined energy storage potential of 15,000 GWh, which is 35 times larger than required to support a 100 per cent renewable electricity grid in Australia. Further site searching is underway in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and will add greatly to this total.
Site searching and development of a PHES cost model are being explored as part of an ARENA funded project.
The Queensland, Tasmanian and ACT PHES atlases are all available within the global atlas. A press release summarising the work is available at the link.
The figure above shows prospective PHES pairs near Gladstone in QLD.