Page 28 - ATODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 19 deceMber 2016

Hydroelectric engineers find potential in centuries-old mine

MARY ESCH derground and utilizes the cades to meet peak de-
Associated Press same water source con- mand for electricity pro-
MINEVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — tinuously. You can’t find a duced by fossil fuel and
Some look at an aban- cleaner way to produce nuclear plants, represent
doned, centuries-old iron and store power than 97 percent of the nation’s
mine in New York’s Adiron- pumped storage.” energy storage today.
dacks and see a relic. Besha first envisioned his Now the Department of
An ambitious group of en- plans in 1990 after Scoz- Energy is calling for a big
gineers sees the shafts in zafava came to him look- increase in pumped stor-
Mineville as a new way ing for a way to make the age capacity by 2050 to
to provide a steady flow defunct mine profitable meet the needs of renew-
of electricity in a growing again. The project lan- able energy sources that
market for renewable en- guished until 2005 as inter- are growing so fast the
ergy. est in renewable energy Energy Information Ad-
They are pitching a plan to projects grew. ministration predicts they’ll
circulate some of the mil- In this Dec. 8, 2016 photo, Steve Burke and Jim Besha of Albany “Now it looks like it could overtake nuclear energy
lions of gallons of ground- Engineering Corp. stand at the site of an abandoned iron mine be online just when it’s by 2021 and coal by 2030.
water that have flooded in the Adirondacks, in Mineville, N.Y., where they’re seeking a needed,” Besha said, not- “Pumped storage enables
the mine shafts over the federal permit to build an underground hydroelectric pumped ing Democratic Gov. An- greater integration of vari-
years to power an array of storage project. The hills behind them are “tailings” leftover from drew Cuomo’s call for 50 able renewables, like wind
crushing ore to extract iron from the mine that closed in 1971.
100 hydroelectric turbines Associated Press percent of the state’s elec- and solar, into the grid by
a half-mile underground. ly half of the water from iron for the first naval battle tricity to come from renew- utilizing excess genera-
They envision the opera- the shafts and pump the of the Revolutionary War able sources like wind and tion, and being ready to
tion as a solution for solar remainder into an upper on nearby Lake Champlain solar by 2030. produce power during low
and wind power produc- chamber. The water would and was mined for the last The project is basically an wind and solar generation
ers, who need ways to en- then be released into a time in 1971. underground version of big periods,” said LeRoy Cole-
sure an uninterrupted flow lower chamber, powering For the locals, the pumped outdoor projects that rely man, of the National Hy-
of energy when the sun turbines and creating elec- storage project would on the same principle. The dropower Association.
isn’t shining and winds are tricity. The turbines would breathe new life into a New York Power Authority’s Underground projects us-
still. be reversed to pump the depressed former mining Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped ing mines, caverns and ex-
“Today, everyone’s recog- water back up to repeat town, doubling the local Storage Project in the cavated spaces have be-
nizing that a critical part of the process. tax base, generating hun- Catskills and the proposed come attractive because
our energy infrastructure Technically, the pumped dreds of construction jobs Eagle Mountain project in of reduced environmental
is going to be storage,” water is considered stored and a dozen permanent southern California, for ex- effects. In addition to Min-
said Jim Besha, head of energy, to be released ones, and providing extras ample, use outdoor, hilltop eville, projects have been
Albany Engineering Corp., strategically when power is like a new highway garage lakes as the upper reser- proposed for an aban-
as he gave officials a tour needed. and water lines, said Tom voirs. doned mine and quarry
of the mine site about 100 The Mineville Pumped Stor- Scozzafava, supervisor of The large-scale pumped in Elmhurst, Illinois, and un-
miles north of Albany. “You age Project still faces fed- the surrounding town of storage projects, which derground caverns in Wi-
can think of it as a bank. If eral approvals and up to Moriah. have been used for de- sacasset, Maine.q
someone has excess solar three years of construction, “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime
energy, they would pay a but it could become one of opportunity for a commu-
fee to store it overnight.” the first projects of its kind in nity that has never fully re-
While logistically complex, the nation. covered from the closing
the plan is at the same It also would mark a 21st of the mine,” Scozzafava
time incredibly simple: En- century re-use of a mine said. “And environmental-
gineers would drain rough- that famously contributed ly, it’s very clean. It’s all un-