Date: 25/5/21
Time: 1400-1630 Central European Summer Time

The International Forum on Pumped Storage Hydropower met for a second time on Tuesday 25 May 2021.

The Forum featured an address from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who said investing in hydropower especially pumped storage is a central part of President Biden’s energy jobs plan.

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The former Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull who Co-Chair's the Forum commenced the meeting, emphasising that pumped storage hydropower capacity is the “single most important issue in the clean energy transition”.

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In a keynote speech, Co-Chair of the Forum Kelly Speakes-Backman, who is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and Acting Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy, reinforced the U.S. Government’s focus on pumped storage hydropower.
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The Forum’s second meeting also featured a high-level roundtable including Malcolm Turnbull, the former Prime Minister of Australia and Greek Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas.

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The meeting updated stakeholders on the Forum’s emerging findings and recommendations from its working groups on policy and market frameworks, sustainability and pumped storage capabilities, costs and innovations.

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Speakers included:

• Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy

• Kelly Speakes-Backman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy

• Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister of Australia

• Kostas Skrekas, Greece Minister of Environment & Energy

• Ariel Yepez, Energy Division Chief, Inter-American Development Bank

• Mike Seaton, Director of Development, SSE Renewables

• Pierre Marx, Managing Director, North America, GE Hydro Solutions

• K.V.S. Baba, Chairman and Managing Director, Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO)

• Raphael Lance, Head of Energy Transition Funds, Mirova

• Antoine Malafosse, International Project Manager, EDF Hydro

• Klaus Krüger, Senior Expert Plant Safety & Energy Storage Solutions, Voith Hydro

Pumped storage hydropower accounts for over 94 per cent of installed energy storage capacity on electricity grids today. The flexibility pumped storage hydropower provides through its storage and ancillary grid services is increasingly important in securing stable power supplies as the world transitions to a low carbon electricity system.

Co-chaired by U.S Department of Energy, the Forum is a government-led multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together 13 governments, international financial institutions, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and over 70 organisations to promote and enhance the role of pumped storage hydropower in future power systems.

Read more about the event.

Learn more about pumped storage hydropower.

For queries, please email communications@hydropower.org

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