I did some work at a place called The hollow mountain that does this. But seeing as it looked like an underground James Bond bad guy base and I was a rope access mook in a boiler suit, I felt like I could die at any moment by tuxedo clad hero.
It wasn't solar they used to power pump the water back up though. They just, hmm I want to say, bought cheap electricity when no one was using it.

[–] ProvableGecko@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is the imperial base from Andor, right? Cool

[–] sicarius@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Holeey sheet it is! I didn't know that! Thanks.

[–] Zacryon@feddit.de 3 points 7 months ago

With an energy conversion efficiency of usually 75 to 80 % they are really efficient and don't have as much energy loss as other types of energy storage. It's a simple, but powerful concept and I find it beautiful. However, there is some concern regarding their impact on the local ecosystem. Not only do they need huge water reservoirs, which are artificially created and therefore might impact nearby rivers and even fish migration, but the way they are sealed with concrete or asphalt also disallows the development of riparian vegetation. From an ecological perspective they are basically dead zones.

Still, considering several alternatives, I think it's one of the better options. Although it's not cheap to build those, which is a problem in our current capitalitic society