You need a reliable source for energy. Pumped storage is not. They are mostly good for dealing with the fluctuations of energy supply and demand. It crucially requires water to operate. You can't do much when there's a drought. Also, did some googling. The world’s largest pumped‑hydro storage plant (Fengning, China) stores nearly 40 GWh, delivering 3.6 GW for about 10.8 hours when full. Thats not even a day.

There are really three options for reliable baseload: coal, gas, nuclear. Pick your poison.

> The better options in my opinion are the places where you can use the landscape to your advantage.

We already do that. France notably has a lot of hydropower and they pump water up when they don’t want to shutdown a nuclear unit.

The issue is that there is very little places where you could build new dams in Europe and water shortage is becoming a regular occurrence.

all the easy pumped storage options have already been tapped. would require mega projects to create more. something only china can do these days :(

> Batteries aren't the only storage. The better options in my opinion are the places where you can use the landscape to your advantage. Pump a lake full when there's too much power and let it drain when there's too little.

It's also the oldest storage tech and I doubt there's a single place in Europe available to build more.

> Also in a connected grid setup, the sun always shines somewhere though that does come with potentially huge transmission losses from distance

The whole EU is in winter weather together.