Electric truck hydropower, a flexible solution to hydropower in mountainous regions

The world is undergoing a transition to a more sustainable energy sector dominated by renewable sources of energy. Climate change will increase the unpredictability of the weather, which calls for increased resiliency of future energy systems. This paper proposes an innovative solution that consists of catching water from streams at high altitudes to fill storage containers and transport them down a mountain, converting the potential energy of water into electricity and storing it in the truck's battery. The energy stored in the electric truck can be sold to the grid or used by the truck to transport other goods. Results show that the levelised cost of the electricity truck hydropower (ETH) is 30-100 USD/MWh, which is cheap when compared with conventional hydropower 50-200 USD/MWh. The electricity generation world potential for the technology is estimated to be 1.2 PW per year, which is equivalent to around 4% of the global energy consumption in 2019. Apart from being a low cost and impact electricity generation technology, electric truck hydropower can operate in combination with solar and wind resources and provide energy storage services to the grid.

Author(s): Julian Hunt

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