Enviro News
Pumped Hydro: Prime Minister Turnbull’s solution to Energy grid security is “so 2016 technology for Melbourne Girls’ College”
On the 7th of July 1949, the Australian Parliament passed the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Power Act. Twenty-five years later, one of the modern civil engineering wonders of the world was completed and to this day, the electricity generated from falling water running through turbines is harnessed and distributed across the National Electricity Market.
On March 16th, Prime Minister Turnbull detailed a plan entitled “Snowy Mountains scheme 2.0” to update the Snowy hydro scheme to include “pumped hydro”. As it stands, most of the water that is run through the 50 year-old turbines runs down the rivers and out to sea. Prime Minister Turnbull’s new proposal is to use the “spare electricity” floating around the grid at times of low energy demand to pump water back up the hill so to speak to store potential energy for release at times when electricity is more in demand. With the closure of coal fired power plants for environmental and/or financial reasons occurring more and more frequently, the question of where Australia will be getting a reliable load of electricity from is becoming a massive issue for state and federal governments alike.
The idea of pumped hydro is certainly not new and in 2015, MGC became the first Australian school to with the ZAYED FUTURE ENERGY PRIZE with a vision to include a micro pumped hydro scheme in the centre stairwell of the main building. Hydro Power systems are a way of taking advantage of the potential energy stored in an object (in this case water) that has been raised to a certain height (in our case 12m above the ground). When the operator of our turbine chooses, they may open up the valve, release the water and let gravity draw the water through the turbine, inducing an electric current, which is then transferred to our own micro grid at school. Our micro grid has been in operation since early 2016 and has been charging staff and student USB powered devices, running a small LED display, powering lights and backing up our portable battery systems for the pedal powered cinema.
