Micro grids and energy storage solutions

Curious to hear if anyone is getting ambitious with energy storage to create your own micro grid - something like pumping water uphill into holding areas when the sun is out/wind is blowing, then running it back downhill when you need the kilowatts…or any other sort of renewable energy storage ?

I envision some sort of series of holding ponds and a pond-aponics type setup to supplement the permifarm and am looking to brainstorm, store the ideas uphill

Pumping water to where it's needed with surplus energy is generally a good idea.

When it comes to electrical generation, the devil is in the details. The elevation, storage volume, piping and flow need to be tuned to feed the gennny. And the genny has to reliably feed the loads in question.

In the big picture, all those conversion losses spoil all the fun from an efficiency POV.

But it's still fun to play around with.

Go with batteries.

I can't name a single person that has a functioning water power storage system.  No-one.  Hydro, yes, pumped, nada!

Sounds great on paper, but I can only think of utility-scale water power generation systems that actually function.

Batteries just work.

Michael has a good point. When it comes to energy density and ease of deployment, you're going to find batteries hard to beat. Several battery chemistries have useful lifespans of decades if they're looked after and not pushed too hard. There are nickel-iron batteries commissioned back in the 1930s that still store useful amounts of power. There are even some types that you can build yourself, although they're not going to be as high-rating as modern manufactured LiPo and similar.

Pumped storage can pay dividends but you must work the green energy credits just right, carefully regulate generation, and match a system precisely to your needs.

The benefits of spinning reserve really cannot be matched which is something batteries, solar, non-synchronous wind can ever compete with.

Unfortunately at my new place, I have flow, but it’s too flat of a piece of land to make pumped storage worthwhile.

At this point  I think it's appropriate to circle back to Tom's original question, and further explore supporting a micro-grid.  Tom, can you get into more detail as to what you are referring to when you want to power a micro-grid?  I'm assuming here that you are referring to the powering of more than one single dwelling?  Is this just a group of buildings on your own homestead, or power for multiple families in nearby houses?

What you want to start with is an itemized list of what it is you want to power, and when they need to run?  Will you need just 120VAC, or both 120/240VAC split-phase?  How many kWh of power do you think you'll need on a daily basis?  For myself, with my cabin running stuff like the refrigerator 24/7, I'm in the range of 3.5-4.0kWh of power per day.  A smaller outbuilding with a freezer running in it 24/7 consumes ~2.5kWh per day.  I'm finding that with a normal 21st century lifestyle, with lights, TV, and some computer time on the internet, I can stay under 4kWh.  Will there be a well-pump?  How big is it, and what voltage?  How much water will be needed on the site?

What do your numbers look like?  What about managing the neighbors?  My overall impression of visitors that see the solar system, is they think "free power, I can use as much as I want".  Visitors need an education in terms of what power conservation at night means.  They really don't understand what happens to the batteries unless they get drained dry.

Get some numbers for us, and we can help you flesh out the details in terms of system voltage, solar watts, inverter selection, ect.

when I run the numbers its scale that is the problem. Your fixed costs for putting it all in are almost identical for a small or large system. so unless you have need of huge amounts of power a battery makes far more sense.