Gordon Butte Pumped Storage Project
The Gordon Butte Pumped Storage Project is a planned pumped hydroelectric storage facility that will be located in Martinsdale, Montana.
The facility will be owned and operated by Absaroka Energy, which submitted a license application for the project to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2015.[1] The agency approved the request in December 2016, following a September decision of no environmental impact, granting Absaroka a 50-year license to operate Gordon Butte.[2]
Gordon Butte will be located on a 177 acres (0.72 km2) site, and will have access to water from Cottonwood Creek, a tributary of the Musselshell River.[2] The facility will operate as a closed-loop system, without actively drawing or discharging water into the watershed.[1] It will have a 4,000 acre-foot capacity reservoir, located 1,000 feet (300 m) above the base,[1] with a power generation capacity of about 400 MW.[2][3]
According to Absaroka, construction was planned to begin in 2018 or later, after design and engineering work is completed and financing is obtained.[2] The construction cost is projected to be $986 million, and once in operation the annual operating cost will be $173 million to generate power with an estimated value of $220 million.[2]
In 2019 Danish investment group Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners made a significant equity investment in the project[4] which was thought to allow construction to begin in 2020.[5] As of 2020, construction was estimated to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2029.[6]
References
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