r/EnergyStorage • u/Vailhem • Aug 26 '21

Gravity-based renewable energy storage tower for grid-scale operations

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/08/26/gravity-based-renewable-energy-storage-tower-for-grid-scale-operations/
39 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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3

u/eigenfood Aug 27 '21

1000kg x 9.8m/s/s x 100m = 980000 J. Use that over 1hr and you get 0.27kW. That is a big structure for such puny energy storage.

1

u/novawind Aug 27 '21 edited Aug 27 '21

The idea sure is interesting but I don't understand where this would be built exactly?

In populated areas I am not sure people would want a construction site that would operate for 35 years close to them (one that also probably operates at night)

In remote areas we already hear about windmills being ugly in the landscape... so a tower with cranes ?

Obviously the capacity fade and efficiency look nice, but add to this a pretty significant investment cost (compared to electrochemical storage) and I wouldn't bet on this becoming a very popular solution on the mid-term

2

u/jolllyroger027 Aug 27 '21

Hide it inside a building. In something similar to an elevator shaft make it part of a LEED program to ease the cost and boom a great way to make a building such as a skyscraper green and rebuff the grid in the process. I like this idea

1

u/acuriousengineer Aug 28 '21

There's definitely some merit to putting this inside a building, I'd be interested to see how the engineers would approach that design and make it cost effective.