This story was produced by My UP News correspondent Jessica Goska, find the original story here.
For the last six years, researchers at Michigan Technological University (MTU) have been making a PUSH for clean energy storage in the Upper Peninsula’s abandoned hard metal mines.
Timothy Scarlett and Roman Sidortsov, associate professors at MTU, have proposed the installation of Pumped Underground Storage Hydropower (PUSH) systems in mines like Negaunee’s Mather “B.”
Their idea comes at a time when the need for energy storage is increasing.
“Other people have had this idea a lot, going back even to the 1960s and ‘50s, but what’s changed is that the need for energy storage is this critical problem now, and everyone in energy knows it,” said Scarlett.
The PUSH system smooths the curve of energy demand by moving water across two reservoirs to generate electricity when demand is high and store potential energy when demand is low.
Paired with a wind farm or solar array, Sidortsov said the system could operate entirely off renewable forms of power.
Within a mine like the Mather “B,” the researchers say the two reservoirs would be placed at differing heights, and because the mine is so deep, a lot of energy could be generated with a much smaller volume of water than would be needed at a facility like the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant.
Sidortsov mentioned that there would also be very little discharge from a PUSH system in an underground mine, so the environmental disturbance would be minimal.
In fact, one of the benefits of placing these systems in old mines, claim the researchers, is that, by their design, they could slowly clean contaminated water in the mines over time.
“Some of the iron mines may have a contaminant in the mine water that’s not from the mine rock but was introduced, like mercury, through the mining process of blasting,” explained Scarlett.
“You could sequester that to a reclamation process and permanently clean the water of that mine, just a little bit at a time,” he added.
To explore the possible reality of their idea, the researchers worked with the City of Negaunee and the Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum to create a 3D Model of Negaunee’s Mather “B” Mine.
What they found is that their idea is worth pursuing, and many mines within the Upper Peninsula, like the Mather, may have the capacity to generate tons of electrical energy that can then be released to the grid.
“With the amount of underground mines, if it is something that could be feasible and it could scale over time, that’s a re-use of sites that, for the most part, are fenced off and unusable. I mean, it’s not just here in Negaunee,” said City of Negaunee Planning and Zoning Administrator David Nelson.
Beyond the potential for these mines to generate energy, added Nelson, the PUSH mine systems could also generate economic growth for communities.
“That’s one of the components that’s kind of overlooked with this whole pumped storage system…Maybe it would be possible to do an underground tour of the Mather ‘B’ once it was de-watered and it was commissioned as this pumped storage system,” said Nelson.
Increased tourism and job opportunities are reasons for city planners to support the idea to revitalize the mines with this system, but there are challenges that come with the idea, too.
De-watering and repurposing the mine would require vetting by multiple agencies, and because a PUSH system has never before been installed inside an abandoned hard rock mine, investors may decide the project poses too much financial risk.
“We came up with this comparison to ratatouille. The ingredients are really simple, but the order, the chopping, the arranging and the overall fear that it is a French dish might dissuade some from attempting it,” explained Sidortsov.
Though a project to implement a PUSH system inside a coal mine is underway in Kentucky, Sidortsov and Scarlett say there are geological differences between coal and hard rock mines.
According to the researchers, hard metal mines are more structurally sound than coal mines, and if an upper reservoir is going to be utilized for a PUSH system, its base must be sturdy.
Many hard rock mines already have an upper reservoir as part of their infrastructure, explained Sidortsov, which means no excavation would be necessary to create a surface-level body of water.
There are many ins and outs to a project of this scale, but Scarlett believes none of the challenges facing the idea are insurmountable.
“The challenges of understanding the system and the rewards that come with it, I think they are worth it,” said Sidortsov.
For now, explained Scarlett, the idea remains a “design exercise,” but the researchers continue to facilitate conversations with businesses, organizations and political leaders that inform stakeholders of the project’s potential.
To learn more about the continued research Sidortsov, Scarlett and their students are conducting in relation to this project, click here.
The original study at Negaunee’s Mather Mine was generously funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
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