27 February 2021 | New Scientist | 13NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent
back astonishing video footage of
its 18 February landing, giving us
the most intimate look ever at the
process of setting a spacecraft
down on the Martian surface.
This still image from one video
was captured by the sky crane,
a sort of robotic jetpack that used
thrusters to slow the rover down
after it entered the Martian
atmosphere before gently placing
it on the ground. No image like this
has ever been taken before; while
the Curiosity rover also used a sky
crane to land on Mars, that crane
didn’t have cameras.
During the landing, the rover
collected about 30 gigabytes of
information and more than 23,
images. The rover also captured the
first audio ever recorded on Mars.
While its microphone didn’t work
during the landing, it did record the
Martian breeze blowing over the
rover once it was on the surface. ❚Space explorationUSING more mountains as giant
“water batteries” that store excess
power from wind farms could
substantially reduce the UK’s need
for new nuclear power and save it
hundreds of millions of pounds.
New pumped hydro projects,
which use off-peak electricity to
pump water uphill and release
it later to generate electricity,
could save the UK energy system
between £44 million and £
million a year by 2050, according
to a report by a team at Imperial
College London. The exact figure
hinges on how much of the
storage technology is built as the
UK rapidly increases its reliance
on variable wind and solar power.
Most of the savings stem fromhaving to build fewer new power
stations, followed by fewer new
pylons and a fall in the costs
National Grid bears to balance
electricity supply and demand.
The report says that by storing
cheap wind power in this way and
dispatching it at times of need,
each 1000 megawatts of pumped
hydro could replace 750 MW of
power from a nuclear plant or a
gas plant with carbon capture.
“There is massive variation in
wind power – this is where this
long-duration storage comes in,”
says Goran Strbac at Imperial, who
modelled the savings. The Scottish
government welcomed the report
in a statement and said it showed
the value of pumped hydro storagein a net-zero power system.
Whether the UK needs new
nuclear to reach its carbon goals is
a big question. Its government is
weighing up financial support for
a £20 billion nuclear power station
in Suffolk that could be built by
French energy firm EDF and which
would have a capacity of 3200 MW.
The pumped storage report
was commissioned by UK-based
energy firm SSE, which last
October won planning permission
for a pumped hydro scheme of up
to 1500 MW. But the firm saysenergy market policies aren’t
yet in place to provide enough
certainty for it to raise the nearly
£1.5 billion needed to build the
Coire Glas project in the Great
Glen between Inverness and Fort
William, Scotland. Almost all of
the UK’s existing pumped hydro
sites are in Scotland and Wales.
“The challenge for the Coire
Glas investment case is although
revenue streams are there, they
are highly uncertain and short
term in nature,” says Mike Seaton
at SSE. He wants to make a final
investment decision by the end
of 2023, so construction could
start the following year with the
scheme operating before 2030. ❚RenewablesGreen energy solution in them thar hills
Leah CraneFirst video on Mars
The Perseverance rover is already giving us a stunning view of the Red Planet
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SA
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“More pumped hydro
projects could take the
place of new nuclear or
gas-fired power plants” Adam VaughanLaunchpad newsletter
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