Abstract
Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) enables the temporary storage of energy, including from intermittent renewable sources, and provides answers to the difficulties related to the mismatch between supply and demand of electrical energy over time. Implementing a PSH station requires two reservoirs at different elevations and with large volumes of water. The idea of using old, flooded open-pit quarries as a lower reservoir has recently emerged. However, quarries cannot be considered as impervious reservoirs, and they are connected to the surrounding aquifers. As a result, PSH activities may entail environmental impacts. The alternation of the pumping–discharge cycles generates rapid and periodic hydraulic head fluctuations in the quarry, which propagate into the surrounding rock media forcing the exchange of water and inducing the aeration of groundwater. This aeration can destabilize the chemical balances between groundwater and minerals in the underground rock media. In this study, two numerical groundwater models based on the chalk quarry of Obourg (Belgium) were developed considering realistic pumping–discharge scenarios. The aim of these models was to investigate the hydrodynamic and hydrochemical impact of PSH activities on water inside the quarry and in the surrounding rock media. Results showed that (1) water exchanges between the quarry and the adjacent rock media have a significant influence on the hydraulic head, (2) the frequency of the pump–discharge scenarios influence the potential environmental impacts, and (3), in the case of chalk formations, the expected impact of PSH on the water chemical composition is relatively limited around the quarry. Results highlight that those hydrogeological and hydrochemical concerns should be assessed when developing a project of a PSH installation using a quarry as a lower reservoir, considering all particularities of the proposed sites.
Highlights
IntroductionLater, during peak demand, water stored in the upper reservoir is discharged into the lower reservoir through turbines to produce electricity
The development and use of renewable energies involve the necessity to temporarily store the energy because of their intermittence [1]. In this context, pumped storage hydropower (PSH) appears an efficient way to store and produce large amounts of electricity that can be used in combination with intermittent renewable energies [1,2]
Positiveexchanges and negative values for the exchange flowrate relate to groundwater between the quarry and the aquifer as a function of time and pumping–discharge that flowed towards the quarry and and water that values flowed the quarry to the chalk aquioperations
Summary
Later, during peak demand, water stored in the upper reservoir is discharged into the lower reservoir through turbines to produce electricity. The possibility of using old flooded mines and quarries for constructing PSH plants [3] and regulating local power grids [4,5,6] has been considered. The implementation of these systems would allow a better management of intermittent local renewable energy production by coupling them with wind and/or photovoltaic systems [2]. The flooded mines and quarries are in continuous interaction with the water contained in the surrounding aquifer systems, both quantitatively and qualitatively
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