In 2025, ACAP-supported research at ANU  materially shaped how governments, utilities and developers plan long-duration energy storage. The Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES) Atlases , led by Professor Andrew Blakers  and supported by ACAP, are now embedded in national strategies and commercial pipelines across multiple continents – accelerating the pathway to ultra-low-cost solar (ULCS).   Solving solar’s storage constraint   Ultra-low-cost solar depends on one critical fact