Feasibility study for utilizing hydropower plants with pumped seawater in the Brazilian coast
Pumped hydropower storage (PHS) is the most widespread and mature technology available to store energy. It will probably remain a competitive solution for modern power systems based on high penetration of renewable energies such as photovoltaic and wind power. The main objective of this study is to analyze the possibility for deploying seawater pumped hydro on the Brazilian coast. To achieve this objective, the best suitable locations were analyzed considering the main environmental impacts related to this type of technology. A case study was conducted in order to present the ideal sizing of the reservoir, pumps and turbines, besides designing a wind and/or photovoltaic generation system to power the pumps. Thus, daily simulations of water and energy flow we performed. To conclude, the technical and regulatory feasibility related to the proposed hybrid system were analyzed. Due to the interest of utilizing seawater, the T4 topology was adopted, which uses the sea itself as the lower reservoir. The results showed that there are 44 locations on the coast of São Paulo that meet the altitude and distance equirements for the implementation of this technology.