5 ms·

The batteries powered by gravity

5 points by pmoriarty 4y ago

timonoko 4y ago
"15m (49ft) steel tower suspending a 50 tonne iron weight. Inch-by-inch." 50e3 x 15 x 9.81/3600/1000? ==> 2 kWh Can power 750 homes "instantaneously" for 29 seconds. Tesla car battery has 100 kWh. Heads exploding. (Inch-by-inch).
- ggm 4y ago
  It can be constructed by traditional manufacturing, can reuse significant amounts of infrastructure, has next to no fire risk outside of the motor and generator, and scales well. It was a demonstrator. It was not built to full capacity, either by height or weight or generation systems. I love batteries, of all kinds. Including this one.
  - timonoko 4y ago
    To give some sense of scale, think about the portable atomic pile in the book Martian. It produces 2 kW for 20 years. Only problem is some radiation, so the hero does not like it very much, but needs a heater in his Martian car. Compare this tiny keg with your 50 ton tower and windmills and solar panels to feed it. Not that difficult, unless one has somekind of religious objections. But alas then you can also buy the "Atomfilter", popular in Deutschland for example, which removes harmful atoms from your electricity.
Canada 4y ago
Another take on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIhCuzxNvv0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIhCuzxNvv0
beardyw 4y ago
> This new field of energy storage Hasn't this been used in clocks for hundreds of years?
dtagames 4y ago
This is a cool use of mass as a storage medium for energy, but the article captions a photo saying they are "producing renewable energy," which is absolutely false. The laws of physics say this system must operate at some loss. No new net energy is being produced, unlike (non-pumped) hydro, geo, or solar.
- karmakaze 4y ago
  The phrasing is imprecise but I can see how it's different than say using electro-chemical batteries that have a limit on number of charges. "Storing energy renewably" seems better.
  - dtagames 4y ago
    Except that's it's a convolution of "renewable." Applied to energy, this means the source of the energy is renewable, which is not the case with fossil fuels or uranium but is with geo or solar. All storage is reusable. There is nothing to be "renewed" except re-filling and repairing the vessel. Being mechanical, this will also need to be maintained and renewed to keep working.
karmakaze 4y ago
I'd like to see some back of envelope calculations on how this scales compared to other methods "pumped hydro" being the most comparable. It will come down to operational efficiency and cost, or peculiarities of its requirements.

5 points by pmoriarty 4y ago

"15m (49ft) steel tower suspending a 50 tonne iron weight. Inch-by-inch." 50e3 x 15 x 9.81/3600/1000? ==> 2 kWh Can power 750 homes "instantaneously" for 29 seconds. Tesla car battery has 100 kWh. Heads exploding. (Inch-by-inch).

ggm 4y ago
It can be constructed by traditional manufacturing, can reuse significant amounts of infrastructure, has next to no fire risk outside of the motor and generator, and scales well. It was a demonstrator. It was not built to full capacity, either by height or weight or generation systems. I love batteries, of all kinds. Including this one.
- timonoko 4y ago
  To give some sense of scale, think about the portable atomic pile in the book Martian. It produces 2 kW for 20 years. Only problem is some radiation, so the hero does not like it very much, but needs a heater in his Martian car. Compare this tiny keg with your 50 ton tower and windmills and solar panels to feed it. Not that difficult, unless one has somekind of religious objections. But alas then you can also buy the "Atomfilter", popular in Deutschland for example, which removes harmful atoms from your electricity.

Canada 4y ago

Another take on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIhCuzxNvv0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIhCuzxNvv0

beardyw 4y ago

> This new field of energy storage Hasn't this been used in clocks for hundreds of years?

dtagames 4y ago

This is a cool use of mass as a storage medium for energy, but the article captions a photo saying they are "producing renewable energy," which is absolutely false. The laws of physics say this system must operate at some loss. No new net energy is being produced, unlike (non-pumped) hydro, geo, or solar.

karmakaze 4y ago
The phrasing is imprecise but I can see how it's different than say using electro-chemical batteries that have a limit on number of charges. "Storing energy renewably" seems better.
- dtagames 4y ago
  Except that's it's a convolution of "renewable." Applied to energy, this means the source of the energy is renewable, which is not the case with fossil fuels or uranium but is with geo or solar. All storage is reusable. There is nothing to be "renewed" except re-filling and repairing the vessel. Being mechanical, this will also need to be maintained and renewed to keep working.

karmakaze 4y ago

I'd like to see some back of envelope calculations on how this scales compared to other methods "pumped hydro" being the most comparable. It will come down to operational efficiency and cost, or peculiarities of its requirements.