3 ms·

Pumped hydro needs a pretty specific geographic profile. It's pretty great where it works, but good luck finding good candidate spots. Some people have been wo

Pumped hydro needs a pretty specific geographic profile. It's pretty great where it works, but good luck finding good candidate spots. Some people have been working on an approach pulling railcars full of rock up a slope, which should have more location options, but I don't know how the math and economics works out.

fluffything 7y ago
> Some people have been working on an approach pulling railcars full of rock up a slope, which should have more location options, but I don't know how the math and economics works out. Have a link?
- detaro 7y ago
  https://www.aresnorthamerica.com/article/8736-america%E2%80%99s-first-commercial-scale-rail-energy-storage-project-receives-blm-approval https://www.aresnorthamerica.com/article/8736-america%E2%80%...
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  There's a similar approach that seems promising - dropping a huge weight down disused mine shafts, and winching it back up at times of low demand. It looks to be a lot simpler than the railway wagon approach. The UK has loads of potential sites, I imagine the US does too. A fairly detailed look: http://euanmearns.com/short-term-energy-storage-with-gravitricity-iron-versus-ion/ http://euanmearns.com/short-term-energy-storage-with-gravitr...
imtringued 7y ago
It doesn't. The only gravity based storage mechanisms that work out take their materials from the immediate environment like hydraulic hydro storage which scales up to 2 TWh for a large storage plant.