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About 10-15 years ago my sister's highschool classmate tried to fund a startup to build mechanisms that would store energy by towing buoys down to the bottom of
by mac01021 6y ago
About 10-15 years ago my sister's highschool classmate tried to fund a startup to build mechanisms that would store energy by towing buoys down to the bottom of the ocean. I can't find it on the web now, though.
It's an interesting idea compared to other gravity storage solutions because
- It's the volume of the buoy rather than the mass that's important
- It could be colocated with and hooked up to offshore wind farms to smooth their generation
- You don't need to build a super-tall crane or elevated reservoir (but you do have to assemble the thing at the bottom of the ocean which sounds hard)
I haven't heard anything about it in ages so it must have turned out not to be practical.
- lxmorj 6y agoProbably easier to have a hose and a balloon / reservoir of compressed air.
- colordrops 6y agoWhy would you need to assemble anything at the bottom of the ocean? Couldn't you set it up above then drop it with the cables attached, assuming it's heavy enough?
- mdtusz 6y agoYou wouldn't necessarily need to even drop much more than a mass that weighs more than twice the buoyant force of the buoy with a block to redirect the cable, then have a floating platform that's more buoyant than the sinking buoy. Interesting idea.
- pjc50 6y agoThe wind/wave people have (re)discovered that the ocean is very good at destroying things. I suspect the amount of energy stored is also disappointingly small, and that you need a buoy the size of a submarine to make a difference.