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Pumped storage, advocates say, is one of several technologies that might fill the role played by gas plants. Right now, California replaces much of the solar generation it loses each evening by burning natural gas, which produces less carbon pollution than coal but is still a planet-warming fossil fuel. Wind and solar power are also expanding quickly in states without mandates, driven by falling costs.ДЄs the country transitions away from fossil fuels, the key challenge will be ensuring thereвЂ™s enough electricity on the grid when the sun isnвЂ™t shining and the wind isnвЂ™t blowing. ThereвЂ™s been a similar flurry of commitments among utilities outside those states, with major power providers based in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia promising to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner. Lawmakers in Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Washington passed laws last year setting targets of 100% clean energy by midcentury, building on previous 100% laws in California and Hawaii. вЂњYou have so many more utilities and states going with low-carbon goals and high-renewable plans.вЂќ вЂњThings have really been ramping up in the last couple of years, especially the last year,вЂќ said Matthew Shapiro, chief executive of Gridflex Energy, which has proposed nine pumped storage projects, including one in Southern CaliforniaвЂ™s Kern County.

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The proposals have included a series of controversial new dams in CaliforniaвЂ™s eastern Sierra, since canceled by its developer a plan to build two reservoirs outside Las Vegas and fill them with Colorado River water and a Montana facility, supported by environmental groups, that would tap into power lines currently used by a coal plant.ДЄbout two-thirds of the proposed capacity is in the West, a geographic slant driven in part by CaliforniaвЂ™s aggressive clean energy goals and huge power demands.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has received or approved applications for at least 51 gigawatts of pumped storage since 2014 - more than twice as much capacity as there is in the United States today. Here are the companies sticking with coalДЄ handful of utilities continue to operate coal plants with no plans to shut them down, defying economic and political headwinds. Developers see a need for a new kind of pumped storage, designed for 21st-century needs.Д¬oal plants are closing across the West. Pumped storage plants are being operated in ways they werenвЂ™t designed for, cycling up and down throughout the day to match the vagaries of the wind and sun. Now renewable energy is scrambling the dynamics of the power grid. Most of them were built as companions to nuclear power plants, soaking up low-cost energy during the night and then generating electricity during daytime or evening hours, when demand - and prices - are higher. Pumped storage plants have been used commercially for decades, with about 40 facilities operating in the United States today. The projectвЂ™s fate may hinge on a question with no easy answer: How much environmental sacrifice is acceptable - or even necessary - in the fight against climate change? A new twist on an old technology Lowe rejects those arguments, saying his proposal has survived round after round of environmental review and would only drain a tiny fraction of the underground aquifer. But environmentalists say the $2.5-billion facility would pull too much water from the ground in one of the driest parts of California, and prolong a history of industrialization just a few miles from one of AmericaвЂ™s most visited national parks. The Eagle Mountain plant wouldnвЂ™t interrupt any rivers or destroy a pristine landscape.

When thereвЂ™s not enough solar power on the grid - after sundown, or perhaps after several days of cloudy weather - the water would be allowed to flow back down to the lower pit by gravity, passing through an underground powerhouse and generating electricity. When nearby solar farms flood the power grid with cheap electricity, LoweвЂ™s company would use that energy - which might otherwise go to waste - to pump water uphill, to a higher pit. Critics have said some of the proposed facilities would flood scenic canyons, interrupt free-flowing stretches of river and harm fish and wildlife.ДЄt Eagle Mountain, one of several abandoned mining pits would be filled with water, pumped from beneath the ground. Those plans are brushing up against concerns from environmentalists, who love solar and wind but usually oppose building new dams, a feature of many pumped storage projects. Across the country, companies are scrambling to build similar facilities to complement solar and wind farms. LoweвЂ™s project, known as Eagle Mountain, is no outlier.