C1.05 - Pumped Storage Hydropower to Harness Excess Solar Power

Creating a natural battery with potential energy.

Sponsor: Ingram School of Engineering   
Student Team: Logan Kuk, Gabrielle Nguyen, Enrique Trevino, Cade Wilson    
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Felipe Gutierrez

C1.05 Logo
C1.05 Logo

Renewable energy sources can have great variability in power generation, which is often channeled into environmentally intensive lithium batteries that degrade over time. This project aims to offset some of the demand for lithium batteries by storing excess energy generated by solar panels as potential energy in high head water for later use as hydropower, essentially creating a natural battery. The capacity of the hydraulic battery will be at least 50 megawatt-hours (MWh), which can support 15,000-25,000 households or power the Tesla Model 3 for 150,000-200,00 miles.

C1.05 Poster Pitch

To view a PDF file of our poster, click the link below!

C1.05 Poster.pdf

Team Contact Information

C1.05 Group Photo
From left to right (Cade Wilson, Logan Kuk, Gabrielle Nguyen, Enrique Trevino)

Team Project Manager: Gabrielle Nguyen, yyg27@txstate.edu

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Felipe Gutierrez, wgy8@txstate.edu


Let us know what you think! You can evaluate our project here: C1.05 Evaluation Form