Committed to providing communities with clean, reliable electricity and affordable grid-scale energy storage.

Ortus Colorado is developing a next generation, low-impact pumped storage hydropower project on private land in Fremont County, CO. The “closed-loop” project is located off-stream, which means the project will not involve the construction of a dam on a river; instead, the closed-loop system will consist of two reservoirs that are offset at different elevations – an upper reservoir and a lower reservoir – taking advantage of the natural topographical relief of the project site. These reservoirs will function as a water battery, recycling the same water over-and-over again to deliver 500 megawatts (MW) of on-demand renewable energy to serve communities across Fremont County and the State of Colorado.

When demand is high, the force of gravity is harnessed and water is released downhill to drive a turbine in a powerhouse, generating electric energy. When there is a surplus of electricity on the grid and demand and cost are low, water can be pumped back uphill to the upper reservoir, converting electric energy to potential energy stored in the form of water.

Pumped storage, a reliable technology that is more than a hundred years old, provides 94% of U.S. energy storage today. It is also the most efficient form of large-scale energy storage and a proven technology to enable greater integration of renewables (wind and solar) into the grid. This time-tested technology will play an important role in facilitating the transition towards a carbon-free grid.