STORAGE SOLUTION


Storage underscores the environmental impact a project of this scale
could have, helping to reduce carbon emissions by 490,000 tonnes per
year—the equivalent of taking 150,000 cars o昀昀 the road.
In response to concerns from local groups regarding potential
environmental impacts, John Mikkelsen, TC Energy’s director for the
Ontario Pumped Storage Project, says major changes to the project
have already been made. Based on feedback from locals and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation “we went through a fairly signi昀椀cant redesign
in 2021 [and] the biggest thing was we put everything underground
or underwater.”
He says the previous designed involved “a conventional shoreline
powerhouse, above ground pen stocks and intake to the system [but]
we were forced to develop a design that took us out into deeper water.
Then we’ve come up with a 昀椀rst for this technology, which is we have
20 screened intakes that remove and return water very gently over a
distributed area.”
The last piece of this design reset he says is “we’re tunneling underneath Georgian Bay to get to these inlet outlets that are out about
800 metres from the shore. So other than the reservoir itself, which is
going to be above ground on top of the escarpment, virtually everything else is either underground or underwater.”
In addition to environmental concerns regarding the project, some
point out that the site would be better served with a battery storage project, which they say on their website has the advantage of a much shorter
construction period and is more energy e昀케cient than pumped storage.
However, in contrast to battery storage facilities using lithium-
RENEWCANADA.NET
ion cells that may have a 20-year lifespan before they have to be
swapped out, Mikkelsen says that with their pumped storage
project “we’re assuming an economic lifespan of 80 years, perhaps
even longer.” And unlike batteries, where their capacity diminishes
over time, “the beauty of pumped storage is in 20 years it’s
producing e昀昀ectively the same level of generation as it is today.”
Despite the di昀昀erences, he still views pumped storage and backup battery storage as complementary solutions. “From a dispatch
perspective, what I would see is as the demand starts to increase, you
trigger pump storage facilities to start generating and putting electricity onto the system,” And beyond that if demand continues to rise
“that’s when you trigger your lithium-ion batteries.”
NRCan actively supports both storage solutions in light of
Canada’s e昀昀orts to decarbonize while meeting rising energy demands.
McDonald shares “the federal government believes that the choice
as to which energy storage technologies are the most appropriate
depends on local availability of resources and intended use.” And
regardless of choice “the Government of Canada will continue to support (backup energy storage) development and deployment.”
NRCan’s parting advice in dealing with potential roadblocks
to energy storage projects moving forward is to embark on “early
and meaningful engagement with communities… carried through
established, open processes.” Engagement which McDonald adds is
“critical to the success of the clean energy transition.”
And one could reasonably argue—critical to the success of Canada
achieving its net energy goals.
MAY/JUNE 2024 – RENEW CANADA 27
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