The ranges to the west of Mackay hold the key to what could be the future of power generation and storage in the north.

The Australian National University (ANU) has completed an audit of 22,000 potential sites across Australia for pumped hydro energy storage, which can be used to support a secure and cheap national electricity grid with 100 per cent renewable energy.

There is a cluster of potential sites along the Eton, Sarina and Clarke ranges with dozens of potential energy generation and storage sites identified.

The zero-emissions grid would mainly rely on wind and solar photovoltaic technology, with support from pumped hydro storage.

According to lead researcher Professor Andrew Blakers, the whole of Queensland would need fewer than half a dozen plants, meaning Mackay would need to compete with Cairns, Townsville, and other regional centres.

Mr Blakers, from the ANU Research School of Engineering, said the short-term off-river pumped hydro energy storage sites combined had a potential storage capacity of 67,000 Gigawatt hours, much more than the capacity required for a zero-emissions grid.

"Australia needs only a tiny fraction of these sites for pumped hydro storage - about 450 GWh of storage - to support a 100% renewable electricity system."

"Pumped hydro storage, including Snowy 2.0, can be developed fast enough to balance the grid with any quantity of variable wind and solar PV power generation, including 100% renewable energy.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency provided $449,000 to support the study.

The sites require pairs of reservoirs at different altitudes, typically ranging from 10 hectares to 100 hectares, in hilly terrain and joined by a pipe with a pump and turbine.

Water is pumped uphill when wind and solar energy is plentiful, and electricity is available on demand by releasing the stored water through a turbine.

Federal member for Dawson, George Christensen, said costs would need to be looked into.

"I welcome the report, it's something we need to have a look at. It sounds like the principles are very similar to the Prime Minister's Snowy 2.0 scheme, which will be built.

"It's not beyond the realm of possibility that this could be a goer.

"We will need to have a closer look at the report and speak to the report's authors to find out the cost of the project and therefore what sort of return on the potential investment there would be," Mr Christensen said.

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