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Yes, but you can be moving rocks up a hill on a train or cable car. Or concrete blocks up a crane. Geographic limitation solved.
by trickstra 6y ago
Yes, but you can be moving rocks up a hill on a train or cable car. Or concrete blocks up a crane. Geographic limitation solved.
- ashtonkem 6y agoRocks and hills are equally geographically limited. Cranes would work, but I think you’re ignoring the massive difference in mass between what the biggest cranes in the world can lift and even the smallest reservoir.
- walrus01 6y agosome people are trying this: https://qz.com/1355672/stacking-concrete-blocks-is-a-surprisingly-efficient-way-to-store-energy/ https://qz.com/1355672/stacking-concrete-blocks-is-a-surpris... I believe there's a beta test facility under construction now.
- arethuza 6y agoStill pretty small compared to pumped storage - they give a value of 20 megawatt-hours, the Cruachan pumped storage scheme (which isn't particularly large) stores 7.1 gigawatt hours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruachan_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruachan_Power_Station
- newyankee 6y agoAre they efficient ?
- ashtonkem 6y agoPumped hydro hits about 80% efficiency. So if you’ve got the right geography for it, it’s one of the best choices available.