Daybreak Power, a developer of gigawatt-scale energy storage projects, announced Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a preliminary permit for its proposed 2,650-megawatt Halverson Canyon Pumped Storage project near Creston, Wash., about 35 miles upstream from Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.
The project is estimated to be $4.9 billion, which would connect to the nearby Pacific Northwest transmission system and ensure reliable, around-the-clock delivery of wind and solar power from Montana and throughout the Northwest.
The Halverson Canyon project is a pumped storage hydropower facility that would use water from Lake Roosevelt and a new reservoir in an upland area above the lake to create a gigantic battery. The facility would use cheap, abundant renewable energy to pump water to the upper reservoir, and then release it through turbines and back to the lake to generate 10 hours or more of renewable energy on-demand each day.
The Halverson Canyo