Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Pumped-storage renovation for grid-scale, long-duration energy storage

Grid-scale, long-duration energy storage has been widely recognized as an important means to address the intermittency of wind and solar power. This Comment explores the potential of using existing large-scale hydropower systems for long-duration and seasonal energy storage, highlighting technological challenges and future research directions for pumped-storage renovation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Pumped-storage renovation of hydropower for multi-scale energy storage.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

References

  1. Luo, X. et al. Resilience of renewable power systems under climate risks. Nat. Rev. Electr. Eng. 1, 53–66 (2024).

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Zhanwei, L. et al. Balancing-oriented hydropower operation makes the clean energy transition more affordable and simultaneously boosts water security. Nat. Water 1, 778–789 (2023).

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Mengke, L. et al. Long-term multi-objective optimal scheduling for large cascaded hydro-wind-photovoltaic complementary systems considering short-term peak-shaving demands. Energy Conver. Manag. 301, 118063 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Julian, D. H. et al. A review of seasonal pumped-storage combined with dams in cascade in Brazil. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 70, 385–398 (2017).

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Internation Hydropower Association. 2024 World hydropower outlook; https://go.nature.com/40yyqQ0 (2024).

  6. China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute. China Renewable Energy Engineering Cost Management Report 2023 (2024).

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U23A20667, 52239001 and 52079014).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianjian Shen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shen, J., Wang, Y., Hao, T. et al. Pumped-storage renovation for grid-scale, long-duration energy storage. Nat Rev Electr Eng 2, 79–80 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-025-00143-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-025-00143-z

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing