{
  "abstract": "Fossil gas is often considered essential for balancing solar and wind beyond 2050, despite its status as a primary source of greenhouse gas emissions. We evaluate seventeen institutional long-term energy plans and find that they skew toward fossil gas because they use temporal aggregation methods that strongly constrain storage cycling, overlook off-river pumped hydro potential, and ignore near-optimal transition pathways. In a post-2050 Australian grid case study, we find near-optimal 100% renewable solutions using an off-the-shelf “segmentation” method. In addition, we develop a planning model that rapidly evaluates millions of near-optimal solutions. We show that batteries and long-duration pumped hydro (48–160 h) can replace gas without incurring a cost penalty, and we stress the importance of energy volume cost (<USD 50 per kilowatt-hour), economic lifetime (∼75 years), and discount rate (≤3%, equivalent to natural monopolies) when modeling large-scale pumped hydro. Since most regions have sufficient 50–5,000 GW-hour pumped hydro options, adjusting modeling practices will help planners design 100% renewable grids using existing technologies.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "School of Engineering, College of Systems and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Corresponding author",
    "School of Engineering, College of Systems and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Timothy Weber"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Cheng Cheng"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Harry Armstrong-Thawley"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Kylie Catchpole"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Andrew Blakers"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Bin Lu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Jennifer Zhao"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Anna Nadolny"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dbw61jpfa3r6x.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103523",
  "fulltext_url": "http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666386426004297",
  "id": "dbw61jpfa3r6x",
  "issns": [
    "2666-3864"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103523",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "QC1-999"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2208|Integrated Energy Systems Optimization"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7117255511",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-23",
  "publisher": "Elsevier",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dbw61jpfa3r6x.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:43:32Z",
      "native_id": "593f0809cdd34d4baa4568108d95173c",
      "source": "doaj",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103523"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "lcc:QC1-999",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Replacing gas with low-cost, abundant long-duration pumped hydro in electricity systems",
  "title_text": "Replacing gas with low-cost, abundant long-duration pumped hydro in electricity systems",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T13:43:32Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dbw61jpfa3r6x",
  "venue": "Cell Reports Physical Science",
  "versions": []
}