[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] New England's Largest Battery Is Hidden Inside A Mass. Mountain | WBUR News

[Allan Sherman]

It is interesting to see this article and be reminded of taking a tour of
the Northfield Mountain powerhouse, probably in the 60s.  I suspect tours
are no longer available as a result of 9/11.

An interesting sidelight to this story is the provenance of MWRA water from
the Wachusett Reservoir to the Boston area.  There has been a proposed plan
for many years of how to provide more water should the Wachusett Reservoir
have insufficient capacity for Boston's water needs.  The original plan was
to pump water from the Connecticut River to keep Wachusett full.  It is now
unnecessary to build a pumping station for this purpose.  All that is now
needed is an aqueduct to carry Northfield Reservoir water to Wachusett, a
distance of about 12 miles.  The pumping capacity is already there.

Incidentally, water flowing from Wachusett passes through turbines to
extract the energy and generate electricity while being carried to Boston.

-Al



On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 2:33 AM Carl Lazarus <carllazarus at comcast.net>
wrote:

> Thank you, Harry.  I am amazed that I did not know about the Northfield
> facility.  Pumped water storage still represents over 90% of all the
> world’s electricity storage.  The world’s largest such facility is in
> Virginia, or was the last time I looked.  I don’t know what China has done
> very recently.  Unfortunately, there is not a huge growth potential of
> pumped hydro as we know it, because you need certain geography to make it
> feasible:  an upper reservoir and a lower reservoir or running water
> source, with enough of a height differential.  There is some interest in
> using the height difference between underground caverns and the ground, but
> so far it has not had much traction.
>
>
>
> Yes it is wasteful of energy, as is electrolyzing water to make hydrogen
> as an energy storage medium and later oxidizing the hydrogen in fuel
> cells.  However, if you have excess solar and wind energy production at
> some times of the day/year, it is less wasteful to convert it to something
> than to just throw it away.
>
>
>
> -- Carl
>
>
>
> *From:* LCTG <lctg-bounces+carllazarus=comcast.net at lists.toku.us> *On
> Behalf Of *Harry Forsdick
> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 17, 2022 8:58 AM
> *To:* LCTG at lists.toku.us
> *Subject:* [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] New England's Largest Battery
> Is Hidden Inside A Mass. Mountain | WBUR News
>
>
>
> Here is a large scale battery based on the differences in cost of
> electricity between high and low periods of demand.  Right here in
> Massachusetts!
>
>
>
> — Harry
>
>
>
> https://www.wbur.org/news/2016/12/02/northfield-mountain-hydroelectric-station
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