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"Timothy Scarlett and Roman Sidortsov, associate professors at MTU, have proposed the installation of Pumped Underground Storage Hydropower (PUSH) systems in mines like Negaunee’s Mather “B.”
“'Other people have had this idea a lot, going back even to the 1960s and ‘50s, but what’s changed is that the need for energy storage is this critical problem now, and everyone in energyknows it,' said Scarlett."
"To explore the possible reality of their idea, the researchers worked with the City of Negaunee and the Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum to create a 3D Model of Negaunee's Mather “B” Mine."
"What they found is that their idea is worth pursuing, and many mines within the Upper Peninsula, like the Mather, may have the capacity to generate tons of electrical energy that can then be released to the grid."
"The key to a completely renewable energy grid could be converting mines across the country into hydro-powered batteries similar to the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant, according to researchers at Michigan Technological University."
"Mines would be repurposed for the same idea behind the Ludington plant: water is pumped upward during low energy demand, and when demand is high, it is released, flowing through turbines that cushion the grid with extra power....."
Justin Cooper for Ludington Daily News
May 16, 2022
"A recent Michigan Technological University study identified hundreds of abandoned U.S. mines that could host pumped storage, with upper reservoirs at or near the surface and lower ones below ground."
"They are close enough to transmission and distribution infrastructure and to solar and wind generating facilities, the report says."
"'All these holes in the ground are ready to go,' said study co-leader Roman Sidortsov, an energy policy associate professor...."
...
John Flesher Associated Press
April 19, 2022
"Faculty and Students from Michigan Technological University provided an update on their study on the feasibility of using the abandoned Mather B Mine as underground pump-hydroelectric energy storage on Saturday, August 21."
"Timothy Scarlett, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University and researcher on the project says the study looks at the feasibility from several standpoints and creates a model of collaborative problem-solving."
“'It’s an opportunity for us to develop a model for projects where instead of having companies and agencies doing things to people, that people and companies and agencies can get together and talk about a critical problem and designing collaborative solutions to it for really the first time to get combined visions of productive, profitable, valuable solutions to problems,' said Scarlett."
....
Melissa Vennix UPMatters.com
August 18, 2021
"Michigan Technological University is studying whether communities could transform abandoned mines into valuable energy storage.
University researchers are partnering with the Marquette County city of Negaunee, population 4,500, on a pilot project that could help mining communities turn liabilities into assets. The prospect is particularly intriguing in the Upper Peninsula, home to hundreds of abandoned metal mines and cripplingly high electricity rates...."
Jim Malewitz for BridgeMI.com
April 3, 2019
Old and new will interconnect in an innovative way if researchers at Michigan Tech can pull off an energy storage concept that pairs some of the state’s abandoned and flooded mines with hydroelectric pumped storage...
Amanda Durish Cook for RTOInsider.com
April 5, 2019
What do hundreds of abandoned metal mines and high electricity rates have in common? Well, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, research is underway that could adapt the contours of underground mines to harness pumped hydro storage. Surplus power would pump groundwater, which tends to flood mines when they are abandoned, up an incline. When energy demands are higher, the water would drop down the mine shafts through turbines that churn out electricity....
Carolyn Fortuna for CleanTechnica.com
April 12th, 2019
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"With the rapid growth of renewable energy, the need for energy storage has been increasing at a neck-breaking speed. There are more than enough mines across the United States and the world that could potentially serve as sites for energy storage of different scales. More importantly, such facilities belong to the category of win-win projects as they are capable of delivering environmental, economic, and social benefits for the government, community, and industry, while achieving something that thus far has been out of reach: sustainable mining."
-Roman Sidortsov
Stories from @MichiganTech:
"Modeling the Mather B Helps Map Out Future for Old Mines and Clean Energy Storage" by Timothy Scarlett, MTU Unscripted. May 25, 2022
"Researchers Investigate Pumped Storage in Retired Underground Mines" by Jason Mack, MTEC. March 24, 2020
"How to Reuse and Abandoned Mine" by Alison Mills, Michigan Tech Research Magazine. December 9, 2019.
