Engineers at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands have revealed a new solution for the storage of offshore wind power. The Ocean Battery is a pumped hydro system that uses excess wind energy to pump water from reservoirs below the seabed up into inflatable, flexible bladders that sit on top of the seabed.

This potential energy, which is held in clean water can then be routed through hydro turbines to generate electricity before being sent back into the underground reservoirs.

The underground reservoirs would be formed of concrete, each with 20,000m³ of storage. Water would pass through turbines held in a machine room housing both the pumps and the turbines.

The product is being developed by spin off company Ocean Grazer, who presented their first commercial demonstrator at technology event CES 2022 in Las Vegas earlier this month. Ocean Grazer says that the technology can be retrofitted or developed alongside a new offshore wind farm.