Underground pumped storage hydropower (UPSH) is an attractive opportunity to manage the production of electricity from renewable energy sources in flat regions, which will contribute to the expansion of their use and, thus, to mitigating the emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) in the atmosphere. A logical option to construct future UPSH plants consists of taking advantage of existing underground cavities excavated with mining purposes. However, mines are not waterproofed, and there will be an underground water exchange between the surrounding geological medium and the UPSH plants, which can impact their efficiency and the quality of nearby water bodies. Underground water exchanges depend on hydrogeological features, such as the hydrogeological properties and the groundwater characteristics and behavior. In this paper, we numerically investigated how the hydraulic conductivity (K) of the surrounding underground medium and the elevation of the piezometric head determined the underground water exchanges and their associated consequences. The results indicated that the efficiency and environmental impacts on surface water bodies became worse in transmissive geological media with a high elevation of the piezometric head. However, the expected environmental impacts on the underground medium increased as the piezometric head became deeper. This assessment complements previous ones developed in the same field and contributes to the definition of (1) screening strategies for selecting the best places to construct future UPSH plants and (2) design criteria to improve their efficiency and minimize their impacts.

The Barthelasse alluvial aquifer is used to supply water to 180,000 inhabitants. The pumping field is located less than 200 m from the Rhône and is 100% fed by water from the Rhône, which makes it particularly vulnerable to any pollution from the Rhône. Between the Rhône and the pumping field is a Girardon unit, an arrangement that can be found regularly along the banks of the lower and middle reaches of the Rhône, and whose role is to stabilise the banks (alluvial deposits) and to facilitate river navigation. In order to know the transfer times between the Rhône and the pumping field, fortnightly monitoring was carried out over a hydrological year, as well as hourly monitoring during a flood in the winter of 2019. The Rhône shows a cyclicality in its isotopic signature with enrichment in heavy isotopes during the winter period, particularly during floods, and a depletion during the summer period. This variation is found well within the associated alluvial aquifer. The application of LPMs models showed that the average transfer time between the Rhône and the Girardon unit was 20 days and 50 days between the Rhône and the Barthelasse pumping. This study highlighted the importance of using several sampling frequencies to consider the diversity of hydrological situations. For the Rhône, event-based monitoring (flooding) proved to be relevant to account for isotopic variability throughout the year. This work also highlighted the impact of the disruption of hydraulic exchanges between the river and the water table caused by the presence of the Girardon unit in terms of the propagation of contaminants.

Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) enables the temporary storage of energy, including from intermittent renewable sources, and provides answers to the difficulties related to the mismatch between supply and demand of electrical energy over time. Implementing a PSH station requires two reservoirs at different elevations and with large volumes of water. The idea of using old, flooded open-pit quarries as a lower reservoir has recently emerged. However, quarries cannot be considered as impervious reservoirs, and they are connected to the surrounding aquifers. As a result, PSH activities may entail environmental impacts. The alternation of the pumping–discharge cycles generates rapid and periodic hydraulic head fluctuations in the quarry, which propagate into the surrounding rock media forcing the exchange of water and inducing the aeration of groundwater. This aeration can destabilize the chemical balances between groundwater and minerals in the underground rock media. In this study, two numerical groundwater models based on the chalk quarry of Obourg (Belgium) were developed considering realistic pumping–discharge scenarios. The aim of these models was to investigate the hydrodynamic and hydrochemical impact of PSH activities on water inside the quarry and in the surrounding rock media. Results showed that (1) water exchanges between the quarry and the adjacent rock media have a significant influence on the hydraulic head, (2) the frequency of the pump–discharge scenarios influence the potential environmental impacts, and (3), in the case of chalk formations, the expected impact of PSH on the water chemical composition is relatively limited around the quarry. Results highlight that those hydrogeological and hydrochemical concerns should be assessed when developing a project of a PSH installation using a quarry as a lower reservoir, considering all particularities of the proposed sites.

Les Stations de Transfert d'Energie par Pompage (STEP) représentent plus de 97 % des stockages d'énergie électrique dans le monde et totalisent environ 170 GW de puissance installée. La France et la Belgique disposent actuellement de 9 STEP d'une puissance totale de 6,3 GW mais il n'existe plus de nouveaux sites acceptables pour des STEP conventionnelles car ces dernières nécessitent le creusement de deux bassins en surface et ne peuvent être installées que dans des zones au relief marqué. Suite à la demande de stockage d'énergie engendrée par le développement des énergies renouvelables intermittentes, on aborde la possibilité de créer de nouvelles STEP non conventionnelles en utilisant les bassins existants dans des mines ou des carrières abandonnées ou en voie d'abandon. Il peut s'agir de bassins en surface ou en souterrain, ces derniers donnant accès à la technologie des STEP souterraines ou semi-souterraine (STEP-3S). On décrit ici le potentiel de ces nouvelles technologies de STEP ainsi que les risques et impacts qu'elles sont susceptibles d'engendrer : interactions hydromécaniques et hydrochimiques avec les aquifères adjacents, mouvements de terrain, émissions de gaz. Il s'agit de risques déjà identifiés et maîtrisés dans le cadre d'autres activités du sous-sol. Pumped Hydro-Energy Storage (PHES) account for more than 97% of the world's electrical energy storage and cumulate approximately 170 GW of installed capacity. France and Belgium currently have 9 PHES with a total capacity of 6.3 GW, but there are no longer any new sites acceptable for conventional PHES as they require the excavation of two basins on the surface, and can only be installed in areas with a marked relief. Following the foreseeable demand for energy storage generated by the development of intermittent renewable energies, it is proposed to study the possibility of creating new non-conventional PHES using existing basins in abandoned mines or quarries. These may be surface or underground basins, the latter providing access to subterranean or semi-subterranean PHES technology (3S-PHES). This paper describes the potential of these new PHES technologies and the risks and impacts they are likely to generate. These risks concern first of all adjacent aquifers: hydromechanical disturbances (propagation of water level variations in the aquifer) and hydrochemical interactions (precipitation of carbonates and iron oxides). They also concern the ground surface with the possibility of ground movements or surface gas emissions. However, these are risks that have already been identified and controlled in the context of other underground activities.