4 ms·
How about huge helium balloons attached to a hose that lets a compressor suck the helium back down to ground level. The hose/tether would be on a spool attache
by phy6 8y ago
How about huge helium balloons attached to a hose that lets a compressor suck the helium back down to ground level. The hose/tether would be on a spool attached to a generator. You could even do this from the ocean floor using regular surface air.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 8y agoThe "huge" is the problem here. In order to store any useful amount of energy, you'd need way too much. We use water because it's readily available, cheap, easy to transport, and relatively easy to store. Concrete is already harder to transport (you need to correctly grasp, stack and release the blocks).
- camtarn 8y agoAs somebody linked further up - there are companies already working on the air-on-the-seafloor idea: http://theliquidgrid.com/2016/12/27/marine-energy-storage/ http://theliquidgrid.com/2016/12/27/marine-energy-storage/