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48 Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2016
From the Americas
in China, with ten or 15 stations under construction there
and a new one coming online every several months. The
3.6GW Fengning station being built in Hebei Province will be
the world’s largest when it is commissioned around 2022,
Dr Yang told Mr Roach. He also noted that China’s 22GW of
installed pumped storage hydro capacity recently surpassed
the 21GW total for the United States and will overtake world
leader Japan (at 27GW) in 2018.
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2014
issued licences for two new pumped storage hydro
stations, both in California. An $800 million, 400 megawatt
(MW) project of the Sacramento utility district at Iowa Hill
involves construction of a second reservoir 1,200 feet above
an existing water body, with connecting tunnels and an
underground powerhouse.
Eagle Crest Energy Co (Santa Monica) is constructing
upper and lower reservoirs at the old Eagle Mountain iron
mine near Palm Springs: a $1.4 billion project expected to
produce 1,300MW of hydroelectricity.
Several dozen other American pumped storage hydro
stations are in the early planning and preliminary study
stages. A notable example is the $2.5 billion, 1,200MW
JD Pool project in Washington State. This would site a
pair of upper reservoirs between strings of wind turbines
on the Columbia Plateau and a lower reservoir, located
2,400ft down the wall of the Columbia River Gorge at an
abandoned aluminium smelter near a dam.
Mr Roach wrote: “Planners envision close coordination
among Columbia River dams, large arrays of wind turbines,
and the proposed pumped storage facilities, which would
hold water in reserve during steady winds and unleash it
during calm periods.”
 Giving some background, Yale Environment 360
observed that pumped storage hydro was first used
in the 1890s to provide greater flexibility for the
management of water resources in the Swiss, Austrian
and Italian Alps. Widely employed in the 1960s to the
1980s to provide load shifting, the technique saw service
mainly at large, inflexible assets.
According to Mr Koritarov, of Argonne National
Laboratory, its popularity rose and waned with that of
the big nuclear and coal-fired power plants. When these
fell into disfavour, he said, “Pumped storage also quit
being built.”
But not altogether. And signs are strong that the
worthy old technique is filling a need in the increasingly
ecology-minded world of today.
Steel
Under scrutiny worldwide for its response
to a weaker domestic economy, China
delivers some surprises on steel
“China is turning out to be a much more effective
exporter of its steel products than many people thought,”
CEO Andrew Mackenzie of BHP Billiton Ltd said on 3rd
December in Melbourne, Australia, according to a transcript
supplied by the Anglo-Australian mining group. “They want
to be that top manufacturer and that top exporter.”
The success of Chinese steel mills in raising exports as
slower economic growth curbs demand at home has
indeed defied expectations. David Stringer of
BloombergBusiness noted that, compared with 2014, mills
in China – which account for half of global production –
shipped about 25 per cent more steel in the year to October
2015.
Chinese exports may reach 110 million metric tons (mt)
for the calendar year, which according to Bloomberg
Intelligence tops the output of Europe’s leading four
producers combined. (“China’s Booming Steel Exports Have
Surprised Market, BHP Says,” 3rd December)
Chinese steel exports are unlikely to increase further,
Japan Iron and Steel Federation chairman Koji Kakigi
said in November. But benchmark prices of iron ore had
already tumbled almost 80 per cent from their 2011 peak as
demand growth faltered in China, the biggest consumer.
Even so, iron ore exporters, including the world’s biggest
miner BHP and Brazil’s Vale SA, are continuing to raise
volumes despite weaker prices, aiming to realise cost
savings by fully utilising their networks of mines, ports and
railroads.
On that score, days earlier Mr Stringer reported on
another trend originating in China. As the nation moves to
a consumer-led economy it will need more aluminium “for
everything from laptops to coffee capsules.”
Imports of bauxite could double over the next decade to
support the Chinese aluminium industry, the world’s largest.
Wrote Mr Stringer: “The worst commodity slump since the
global recession and a collapse in aluminium prices doesn’t
mean there isn’t money to be made from digging up the
bauxite ore used to produce the [aluminium] – provided you
have the right kind of mine.”
 Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-biggest metals
miner, is clearly intent on having such a mine. The
Anglo-Australian company, with headquarters in London,
is investing $1.9 billion in a new deposit even as the
price rout has forced it to slash global capital spending
by $11.5 billion since 2013.
According to Deutsche Bank AG, by 2019 Rio’s Amrun
project in Australia will be able to unearth high-grade
bauxite ore for about $20 per mt and sell it for around
$50.
After seven years of evaluating Amrun – located near
Weipa in northern Queensland state – Rio approved the
project on 4th December.
BloombergBusiness reported that most of the bauxite
produced will be for sale to China. (”Metals Slump No
Hitch for New Rio Mine With 60 Percent Profit Margin,”
1st December)
Dorothy Fabian – Features Editor