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Isn’t pumped hydro a realistic solution? There should be a massive amount of energy in moving all that water up a mountain.

• bluescrn 5y ago
  Pumped storage hydro makes far more sense. Which is why it's already in use. Maybe the efficiency can be improved upon with a small-scale 'gravity battery', but water has massive advantages when it comes to scaling it up, as well as being able to combine it with traditional hydro, where nature moves much of the water for you.
  • RosanaAnaDana 5y ago
    Plenty of issues with hydro, but in the grand scheme of things, it does seem like by far the most accessible, actionable, least polluting option. I've often wondered what scale of a system would be required to power a fully off the grid home at say 30kwh/ day, for say, 6 days? I'm imagining a tank based system with two tanks where the fluid is effectively just exchanged (so one doesn't have to account for the environmental impacts of a dam or for losses due to evaporation).. After some googling: https://www.edie.net/library/Using-pumps-as-turbines-to-generate-power/5998 https://www.edie.net/library/Using-pumps-as-turbines-to-gene...
• walshemj 5y ago
  Limited places it will work and you cant just flood valleys and displace the residents anymore in the west.
• ascorbic 5y ago
  Pumped hydro's main drawback is that it has very specific requirements in terms of geography.