Life Cycle Environmental Impact of Pumped Hydro Energy Storage

Abstract

Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is one of the energy storage systems to solve intermittent renewable energy and support stable power generation of the grid. About 95% of installed capacity of the global energy storage system is contributed by PHES. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to analyse the environmental impact of PHES construction and operation phase in this study, and 1 MWh of electricity delivered from PHES to the power grid is set as the functional unit. The results show that the electricity power structure and electricity loss caused by the charging-discharging of PHES are the main environmental burden contributors, contributing 80 to 99% of the total environmental emissions. And environmental impacts during the construction phase is mainly due to the use of concrete, steel, and cement. In the future, as the proportion of renewable energy in the grid structure increases, the environmental impacts caused by PHES will decrease accordingly.