Using gravity to store surplus renewable electricity

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SubieRubyRoo said:
Alternative searches are fine. But many don’t make sense, especially when they won’t attract private investment to get those technologies off the ground. Anything that requires taxpayer dollars to be feasible should be an immediate nonstarter.
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The US subsidizes oil & gas to the tune of $10~50 billion per year, depending on how you look at it.

Energy will always be subsidized. It’s seen as necessary to the security of the nation.
 
goingplacesanddoingstuff said:
The US subsidizes oil & gas to the tune of $10~50 billion per year, depending on how you look at it.

Energy will always be subsidized. It’s seen as necessary to the security of the nation.
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And yet, there are probably a host of regulations and unneeded hoops that drive up the costs. If these were removed or even made more logical, the subsidies could as well.
 
SubieRubyRoo said:
And yet, there are probably a host of regulations and unneeded hoops that drive up the costs. If these were removed or even made more logical, the subsidies could as well.
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Of refined products, perhaps. On the upstream side, it has only been in the last 3 years or so that US onshore unconventional drilling has been broadly profitable.
 
tom slick said:
Big Creek uses gravity to store energy by pumping water from a lower lake to an upper lake when power demand is low.
newsroom.edison.com

Big Creek Hydroelectric System Produces ‘Hardest Working Water in the World'

Imagine generating electricity by taking large quantities of water from lower elevation reservoirs and pumping it up 1,000 feet before releasing it through turbines as the water flows down. For more than 20 years, Southern California Edison (SCE) has ...
newsroom.edison.com newsroom.edison.com
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Here's one local to me....

The Lake Lyell Pumped Hydro Project

www.lakelyellpumpedhydro.com.au www.lakelyellpumpedhydro.com.au
 
I have seen those concept in the media before, concrete bricks on crane or train with concrete going up and down hill to a yard, etc. Unless you get the facility and equipments for free they are not going to be cost effective per kwh. This is the same as pumped storage or hydro. You need a good location so you can store water for free, without digging a lake. Panama canal cost a lot ya know.

My beef is, most people just want to store electricity, when the reality is we can store USE of electricity much easier. Cooling a brick of ice when it is off peak is much easier. Arc furnace when it is off peak is much easier. Charging EV when you are sleeping is much easier (although you can't brag about carbon free most likely). Heating a tank of water off peak is much easier. There are a lot of industrial and commercial use that can be shifted when the incentive is there.

Storing electricity is expensive, why limit yourself?
 
Elkins45 said:
www.bbc.com

Can gravity batteries solve our energy storage problems?

Could a cutting-edge technology that harnesses one of the universe's fundamental forces help solve our energy storage challenge?
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

Use surplus electricity to lift giant weights, release them to spin generators during periods of peak demand. Interesting.
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Nothing new really, the principle is already long utilized by hydro-accumulating power plants. Water gets down to generate electricity at power consumption peaks and is getting pumped back up during night when electricity consumption is lowest, while utilizing excess electricity produced by nuclear power plants that cannot vary power production much. Efficiency is about 70%.
 
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