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Check the one near Cape Town. It can run for up to 12 hours with two "small" dams and the altitudes for the dams are ~100m & ~350m respectively, connected by water tunnels & 4 turbines. It is located in the mountains, right next to the coast (which I think minimizes negatives further).

The the size and rainfall season matters for how long they can run. Cape Town has a winter-rain season that runs from roughly May to September.




This one? Looks interesting.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steenbras_Power_Station

The capacity of the smaller of the two dams is 3,560 megalitres. I think a 1km X 350m X 10m deep is this capacity. So "small" is fairly subjective term, but you are right that it is not gargantuan. It is still not going to be easy to place such a setup just anywhere, but I'm willing to admit my statements may have been a little too much.

I would be interested in how much it cost to build and run to obtain the 180mwh capacity. A similarly size gridscale battery would cost in the vicinity of 40-60 million USD (using the $140 per kWh cost, numbers are is hard to find for the supporting equipment and installation costs).

There is probably an inflection point where pumped storage becomes more economical than batteries. With land and labour costs so different from lace to place what makes sense in certain areas, is probably not economical in others.

https://www.morningbrew.com/series/battery-tech-for-evs-and-...




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