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

[Michael Alexander]

Isn’t Quabbin Reservoir the real provenance of Boston Area (MWRA) water, including water for Lexington and Bedford?  Quabbin feeds the Wachusett Reservoir, which then feeds water to the Boston Metro Area (although not all towns therein).
    – Mike Alexander




On Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 11:38 PM, Allan Sherman <allanpsherman at gmail.com> wrote:

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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