How to store electricity?

Battery parks as an alternative to mega power plant

The solar boom makes the expansion of electricity grids necessary, as well as that of storage options.(Bild: Hansesun)

The planned two billion euro Kaunertal power plant also serves as a gigantic electricity storage facility for wind and solar energy. But there are alternatives in the form of decentralized battery parks. Tyrolean politics provides some interesting figures.

Almost no parliamentary session goes by without the topics of climate protection and the energy transition being debated in some form or another. The black-red coalition is preaching the expansion of hydropower as the irrefutable cornerstone of future energy supply, away from fossil fuels such as coal and oil. One specific project planned is the expansion of the Kaunertal/Platzertal power plant. Pumped storage facilities of this type are regarded as a key technology for storing large amounts of energy seasonally and not just on a daily basis, and also for stabilizing the electricity grid.