In Germany, the coal mine will be turned into a pumped storage power plant

Upper reach (reservoir) of one of the existing PSPs

North Rhine-Westphalia is a large industrial region of Germany. Here are located factories, plants, coal and iron ore mines. As for coal mines, they are gradually closed, the administration of the region plans to decommission the last mine in 2018. The reason is the outdated infrastructure, low prices for electricity (which in some cases makes the extraction of coal as a fuel for thermal power plants unprofitable), the desire to improve the state of the environment.

One of the mines that are going to close is Prosper-Haniel. True, the object will not be completely mothballed. This mine will be turned into a pumped storage power station . In their work, power plants of this type use a complex of generators and pumps or reversible hydroelectric power units. They can work both as generators and as pumps. At night, water is pumped to a relatively high reservoir. In the morning and in the evening, during peak energy consumption, such a power plant discharges the produced water from the upper tank to the lower one, generating energy.

The problem with peak energy consumption is that in the power systems of most countries, a large proportion of its production comes from thermal and nuclear power plants. They cannot quickly reduce or increase power generation to smooth out “peaks”. As a result, the cost of "peak" energy increases. This, in turn, makes it quite profitable to use pumped storage power plants (PSPs).
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In Germany, an important role is now played by alternative energy, in particular, wind and solar power plants. As conceived by the regional administration, on sunny or windy days, when such power plants generate a lot of energy, some of it will be used to transfer water from the “mine” PSP to the upper reservoir. On days when there is no wind or sun, and the users have high energy consumption, water will be drained into the lower tank, getting the necessary electricity.

PSPs are usually built in regions with a significant height difference. In the case of the Prosper-Khaniel mine, the situation is somewhat different. There are all conditions for the creation of such a power plant, since all the required factors are present - the height difference, the possibility of water discharge and collection, the water itself. The project manager for the transformation of the mine into a hydroelectric station is André Niemann from the University of Duisburg-Essen . He believes that the mine is an excellent option for creating a closed system of a power plant, where there are all the necessary infrastructure elements.

“We calculated that about 600,000 m ^{3 of} water could be placed in a storage facility,” says Nimann. “This means that when fully loaded, we can get 200 megawatts of electricity in just four hours.” The depth of the mine is 600 meters, it has been developed since the beginning of 1974. The financing of the construction of the plant is initially provided by the administration of the region and the European Union. Now North Rhine-Westphalia provides about a third of the energy generated in Germany. In particular, a large number of coal-fired power plants are located here. The government plans to reduce their number by a third by 2025, so the region has to look for other sources of energy.



PSP from a mine in Germany is not the first project of this type in the world that will be implemented in the near future. In Australia, they are planning to create one, transforming a deep mine where gold was previously mined. The estimated capacity of the North Queenstra station is about 250 MW. The construction of the power station in Queenspear is the company Genex Power. In operation, the GAES from Australia should enter in 2018.

Other projects so far remain only on paper. For example, in Canada, previously planned to build a hydroelectric power station next to the iron ore quarry. About this company, which is responsible for the work of this career, announced in 2013. Unfortunately, since then there is no news about this project. In the state of New York, USA, they were also going to convert the mine into a power station. In 2015, the company that took on this project received all the necessary licenses. But, unfortunately, over the past two years no serious actions have been taken in this direction.

The actions of the German authorities are now aimed at the rapid commissioning of a new type of power plant. If this experience is successful, it is possible that they will be transformed into PSPP and other mines.