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It has existed since the 1960s.

> Pumped storage is by far the largest-capacity form of grid energy storage available, and, as of 2020, accounted for around 95% of all active storage installations worldwide, with a total installed throughput capacity of over 181 GW and as of 2020 a total installed storage capacity of over 1.6 TWh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...

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You are kind of making my point for me. 181GW capacity is laughable at a global level. Better than nothing, for sure, but it isn't going to solve our energy needs - you need to increase that by a couple orders of magnitude.

30 % of total generating capacity (Switzerland) is too little? Even 6 % is plenty enough to stabilise the grid in (northern) Italy, while helping France as well. Maybe you are overestimating how much imbalance happens.

See https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/china-leads-wave-cle... for some figures on curtailment.

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