4 ms·

What implementation advantages are there to liquid vs solid?

• ncmncm 5y ago
  (1) You don't need to make the liquid. (2) You don't need to make the hill for the liquid. (3) You don't need to worry about wind making your system fail. (4) The amount of energy you can store has no relation to the amount of equipment you need to build. (5) Your equipment has only 3 states: stopped, pumping, or draining. (6) There are only 3 states of the whole system: empty, partly full, and full. Pumped hydro admits interesting variations. The reservoir may be deep underground. The reservoir may be a rigid tank deep under the sea. The fluid may be air, and the reservoir a bladder tank deep under the sea, or under the water table. Solid admits one interesting variation: crane at ground level, a single extremely weight suspended in an existing, deep mine shaft.