This is equivalent to 400,000 electric car batteries.




a news reported that a 900 MW "water battery" cost Switzerland 2 billion euros and has been under construction for 14 years, and is now operational. The battery is located about 2,000 feet (600 meters) underground in the Swiss Alps.

With the world focused on harnessing its energy from renewable energy sources, there is also a need to store this energy that is produced intermittently depending on the weather conditions and time of day. While dense battery packs are a solution to this problem, these storage devices also need metals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium, which must be mined and not environmentally friendly.

Scientists around the world have experimented with other ideas for energy storage, such as using carbon dioxide or even taking advantage of the capacity of elevators at high urban heights to quickly dissipate energy at peak demand. While these are still largely experimental, the water battery is a well-known thing to work.

How does the water battery work?

The water battery consists of two large pools of water located at different altitudes. When power production is high, excess energy is used to transport water from the lower pool to the pool at a higher altitude, which is similar to conventional battery charging.

When the demand for energy increases, the water can be released at the top level, and when it heads to the lower pond, it passes through the turbines that generate electricity and can be used to operate the grid.

This concept may seem new but has been in use in Switzerland for centuries. The United States has also been using this method for nearly a century, while China recently decided to build a storage capacity of 270 GW by 2025.

Switzerland's recently operational water battery has a storage capacity of 20 million kilowatt-hours, equivalent to 400,000 electric cars, and aims to help stabilize Switzerland's power grid and other connected networks in Europe. Euronews has revealed that the plant has six turbines that can generate 900 MW of power.

Why did it took 14 years to build it?

The battery was built between the Emosson and Vieux Emosson reservoirs in Valais, a canton in the southwestern part of Switzerland. Located 2,000 feet (600 meters) underground, the plant's spacious engine room is about 650 feet (200 meters) long and more than 100 feet (32 meters) wide.

To transport construction materials to the site, engineers first had to dig tunnels across the Alps. The tunnels dug for the project extend to about 11 miles (18 km). Once these tunnels are created, building materials and prefabricated buildings can be transported to the mountain, a process that took 14 years.

To increase battery power storage capacity, the Vieux Emosson dam height has also been increased by 65 feet (20 meters). After all this hard work, the battery now operates and at its peak is able to run 900,000 homes at a time.