the article mentioned desalinating water as a way to use negatively priced energy and storing the value in a commodity for sale or consumption at a later date, not pumped hydro storage
I have friends who live in a complex that was built for athlete housing during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The sewage treatment plant is 1 away on one side and an asphalt plant is 1km away on the other side and have been there before anybody ever considered building anything else near there.
There are never ending complaints from the residents about the asphalt plant.
The town council soliciting bids to have paving done got only one quote - from the company that operate the asphalt plant. They offered to truck the asphalt in from their other plant in the next town 45 minutes away, with all the trucking costs at the town’s expense.