Yes. And it works.
It’s called a Dam.
Comment on We should rename Solar to Patriot Power to make it palatable to the right
RGB3x3@lemmy.world 9 months agoI just heard about gravity “batteries” that involve lifting concrete blocks to store potential energy, then dropping them to generate electricity with a turbine. It’s probably the most interesting thing I’ve heard of in a while and such a clever way to store energy without needing a battery.
DrQuint@lemm.ee 9 months ago
elxeno@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Timberborn has those, it’s a city builder game with beavers.
skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
there are plenty issues with wear of all moving parts involved. fortunately it can be improved on in a pretty straightforward way www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGGOjD_OtAM
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satanmat@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Energy storage is THE issue…. You want to be a billionaire? Figure that out.
Pumped hydro, is great, but there are very few places where it is feasible
skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
there are many nifty ways to do it. i like molten silicon for example silbat.com
but how about shift in perspective? if you want to get in on all renewable power source, maybe it’s you who should adjust power consumption a little bit instead? fortunately most of energy used is used up for heating, and you can plug all excess energy into heater, store energy in big barrel of water for all your heating needs, and skim electrical power when available + maybe batteries as a higher priority
Bgugi@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The math doesn’t really work out for gravity batteries. A fifteen ton block dropping 100 feet releases about a kwh of energy.
Or you could just have $150 worth of lithium batteries.
CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world 9 months ago
See I’ve been skeptical about the gravity battery, too. I’m glad to see it developed, toyed with, but I like very simple ideas with very few, if any, moving parts. Gravity battery? Moving parts, cables. Would be a nightmare to work on if it broke down, possibly dangerous with the stored potential energy.
Much safer: sand battery. BTUs are expensive, you’re probably heating your water, and depending on the winter climate where you live, you are using electricity to convert to BTUs so you can heat your home/not die. I say skip the middle man!! Convert the extra energy generated from solar/wind/whatever…store it in the fucking sand as heat.
I also look at the sand battery’s simplicity, serviceability from a post-nuke/EMP/grid-down/post-apocalyptic standpoint. Should I be unfortunate enough to survive. It’s so…practical. Solar panels should only get hit <15% damage from EMP. It gets the electricity. Sent to large copper rods, acting as heating elements. Heat the sand. 🙌🏻 Sand will cost a few thousand & never degrade. Rods, cheap enough, have some spares. Those shitty LiPO batteries play out during the apocalypse, as they literally always do? You’re SOL.
skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
first, it stores heat only. you can make it work with 1000L or so barrel of water and this gets you supply for days. second, you’d want this thing to service entire small community, because otherwise square-cube law fucks you hard. you need also all the auxiliary devices like heaters, pumps, control hardware that looks the same no matter if you make it work for your house or small village
CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That is correct, it stores heat only. A little bit about my situation: I have a drafty AF, 3200 sq ft farmhouse. Yes, I know I need to fix that…all things cost a lot of money, to do well.
A hot water tank tie-in would be excellent too, of course.
Additionally, I’d put the heated sand to work heating a large concrete driveway, a sidewalk in the winter months. While this can be classed as a “luxury”, I view it as an investment in my health & well-being, as well as reducing risk & increasing my reliability. Eventually I’d like to throw up a polebarn style garage, with heated concrete pad, pull on the sand battery to heat that as well. Winter is a big problem where I live!! And a massive pain in my ass.
Please be kind, I’ve heard talk like this before, but tbh I don’t know what it means: > “because otherwise square-cube law fucks you hard.”
What does this mean? 🤔 ELI5? TIA, I like these convos. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Zippy@lemmy.world 9 months ago
This. Thanks for doing the math. The only way it makes any real sense is if you a have geographical features that can store the energy. Ie right near a mountain and a large body of water high up. And even with that, it often only makes economical sense at exsisting dams where you can pump the water back into the reservoir and the generation systems is already paid for and in place.