Global pumped storage: China dominates, India ramps up

The ‘global pumped-storage tracker’ in The World Atlas of Hydropower & Dams, a comprehensive table which now contains more than 600 individual projects totalling some 556 GW at various stages of development, highlights the growth potential for the most widely used and proven form of long duration energy storage. As research by Martin Burdett reported here shows, China continues to dominate, accounting alone for 88 per cent of the capacity under construction globally, but India is advancing to meet its own ambitious targets; the past year has also seen some significant developments in Europe and Southeast Asia. Challenges are posed by competition from grid-scale batteries in the context of lengthy lead times and stringent environmental permitting requirements in many markets for pumped storage, along with rising costs globally caused by a combination of geopolitical tensions, protectionism and inflation. Developers are increasingly turning to building information modelling (BIM) and early contractor involvement (ECI) to enhance project efficiency and minimize delays and cost overruns.