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> In 2026, a sphere nine metres in diameter and weighing 400 tonnes will be submerged off the coast of California at a depth of 500 to 600 metres. It will have
by bell-cot 2y ago
> In 2026, a sphere nine metres in diameter and weighing 400 tonnes will be submerged off the coast of California at a depth of 500 to 600 metres. It will have a storage capacity of 0.4 megawatt hours (400 kWh), enough energy to power an average household for several weeks.
What is this going to cost? From a quick search, Tesla Megapacks are now about $250/KWh. With battery costs still falling steadily, those might be considerably cheaper by the time the first 9m sphere hits the water.
And with all the recent anchor-dragging incidents, how many countries would be eager to have their energy storage located far off-shore?
- engineer_22 2y agoWell concrete and steel are the major material components, fairly cheap, but pumps and turbines require high precision machining, fairly expensive. Lithium will probably be cheaper. Probably not economical in current conditions, but worth doing to say it was done.
- LorenPechtel 2y agoBut the pumps and turbines are based on how much power it can process, not how much it can store. Most storage systems have a big downside in that the J that you use once a year costs just as much to store as the one you use every day. This perhaps permits putting a lot of air down there as reserve for when the sun doesn't shine for days on end. Lithium is non-viable for dealing with long periods of darkness (big storm on top of your collectors.) To ensure the lights stay on in the worst case you need weeks worth of storage.