3 ms·
You need enough cranes to smooth the dips in power generation as each crane finishes dropping one weight and has to go fetch another. The number needed would be
by rtkwe 8y ago
You need enough cranes to smooth the dips in power generation as each crane finishes dropping one weight and has to go fetch another. The number needed would be proportional to the desired power output of the system (holding the size of the weights constant).
- mdorazio 8y agoIt looks like their prototype uses 6 cranes on a single central pillar, probably for this reason. It seems like with some basic algorithms you could get away with as few as 3 and still supply steady power as long as the cranes are tall enough.
- CydeWeys 8y agoSo a few cranes? Keep in mind these will be grid-tied too, so you only need the power to be smoothed across the entire grid; it doesn't have to be at a single location. So grid storage batteries elsewhere could play a role too.
- rtkwe 8y agoYou still want each individual power plant to provide as smooth a power output as possible because each dip puts some strain on the other plants in the network as they have to increase their output to accommodate.