Pumped hydro grid storage could be poised for a comeback

Venture capitalists are pouring buckets of cash into novel ways to store clean energy, even though we already have a technology that does this, and does it well.

That would be pumped-storage hydropower, which simply lifts water to an elevated reservoir for storage, and then releases it to spin turbines and generate electricity when needed. This mechanism has been in use for more than a century and constitutes some 95 percent of grid-scale storage in the U.S. today, according to the Department of Energy.