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Baroota Reservoir is a
reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
on the western edge of the southern
Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabi ...
of
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. It was built in 1921 to supply additional water to
Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South ...
as part of the
Beetaloo Reservoir The Beetaloo Reservoir is a currently unused reservoir in the southern Flinders Ranges locality of Beetaloo Valley in the hills east of Port Pirie in the Mid North region of South Australia. The Beetaloo Reservoir no longer supplies drinking wa ...
distribution network. The dam is no longer used to supply drinking water, but is maintained as an emergency water source in the event that the Morgan-Whyalla pipeline fails. It is also used for a small amount of irrigation. The reservoir does not fill every year. When completed in 1921, it did not fill to the spillway until 1932. The original spillway was replaced in the mid-1950s and again in 1978. In 2018, Rise Renewables won grant funding of $3 million towards an estimated total cost of to accelerate a proposal to establish a pumped hydro storage facility using Baroota Reservoir. At the time, the government funded the development of several proposals, as South Australia had wind and solar power generation, and grid-connected batteries but no pumped hydro storage. If the project is developed, it is expected to provide between 200 MW and 270 MW with up to eight hours of storage. The proposal would use the Baroota Reservoir as the lower pond and establish a new upper reservoir for water to be pumped and stored. Rise Renewables also has a proposal for the Bridle Track Solar Project which could provide electricity to power the pump.


References

{{Reservoirs in South Australia Reservoirs in South Australia 1921 establishments in Australia