On Tuesday, 16 April 2019, a high-level Californian delegation of politicians and business representatives visited the Nant de Drance pumped storage power plant, which is about to be completed. The visitors, who are touring Switzerland and France on a study trip organised by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy (CFEE), were evidently impressed by this project.
“Switzerland and France are constructing innovative energy projects that will drive down carbon emissions. In order to meet our state’s aggressive climate targets, we need to seek out cutting-edge climate strategies”, pointed out Senator Bob Hertzberg, who led the delegation together with Jay Hansen, CEO at CFEE.
In California, like in Europe, the proportion of renewable energy sources with fluctuating feed-in, especially solar, is increasing significantly. This is causing the demand for flexible and CO2-neutral storage solutions to rise, so pumped storage power plants like those operated by Alpiq could also make a substantial contribution to the successful system integration of renewable energies in the west of the USA.
