Researchers have identified 37 former mining sites in Australia that present the ideal conditions for installing pumped hydro facilities as a way to store renewable energy.

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity is effectively a way of storing energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation.

Low-cost surplus off-peak electric power is typically used to run the pumps. During periods of high electrical demand, the stored water is released through turbines to produce electric power.

Due to Australia’s sizeable mining industry, there are a significant number of mining pits that could be transformed into reservoirs to make mass energy storage a reality, according to a team of researchers from the Australian National University (ANU).

On a global basis, they identified 904 sites in former mining areas, known as brownfield, with a combined potential storage of 30 TWh. The team developed an algorithm that identified mining pits...