Comment on Anon questions our energy sector
ceiphas@lemmy.world 4 weeks agoyou know that grid storage does not always mean “a huge battery”, you can also just pump water in a higher basin oder push carts up a hill and release the potential energy when you need it…
iii@mander.xyz 4 weeks ago
Pumped storage is a thing yeah. But might just as well go full hydro, if you’re doing the engineering anyways.
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
I feel like we’re missing the part about “push carts up a hill”, which involves virtually no serious engineering difficulties aside from “which hill” and “let’s make sure the tracks run smoothly”. See: the ARES project in Nevada
iii@mander.xyz 4 weeks ago
Yeah, that’s 50MW, storing power for 15 minutes, so 20MWh. (1).
There’s also a similar company: gravicity.
They’re a fun academic endeavour. But if gravity provides the potential, water beats them per dollar spend.
So do regular batteries.
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
A fair point, but given how the best places to build solar infrastructure tend to not have easily accessible large volumes of water, I should think that economies of scale can apply if we were to put actual investment into scaling up the gravitational potential. Sure, it’s not a power law like for kinetic energy, but greater height and greater mass are both trivial quantities to scale in places with large empty areas. I’m simply pointing out that we’ve never invested in that obvious possibility as a civilization.