
This closed-loop pumped storage Project does not seem likely to result in any serious negative impacts to other freshwater bodies, nor methylmercury contamination of fish tissue or greenhouse gas emissions, and it will provide clean backup power during the low-flow periods when small run-of-river hydroelectric facilities are shutting down because of reduced stream flow. Comparing the power output of this peak demand storage Project, and its minimal environmental impacts to the number of rivers it would have taken to generate 400 to 500 MW of power from dozens of small hydropower projects, makes it ORA’s preferred choice over conventional hydroelectric facilities.