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Gravitricity: Storing energy using gravitational potential (gravitricity.com)

submitted 5 months ago by antrosapien@lemmy.ml to c/solarpunk

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I have been following them for a few years and they are making some slow and steady progress

From their page: As the world generates more electricity from intermittent renewable energy sources, there is a growing need for technologies which can capture and store energy during periods of low demand and release it rapidly when required.

At Gravitricity we are developing innovative, long-life, underground technologies which store energy safely and deliver it on demand at a lower lifetime cost than current alternatives.

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[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The only way to make this crane system work reliably would be to enclose it entirely to protect it from wind, and/or build a huge frame around it to keep the blocks sufficiently aligned..... making it a much larger undertaking than just a crane with a bunch of blocks around it.

[–] lens17@feddit.de 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"Underground" is mentioned in the text above. I know that some people are considering to store heavy blocks connected to ropes in the shafts (?) of old coal mines that go down hundreds of meter. Use a single, very heavy block and you're good to go. Though I don't think that it holds a significant amount of energy (too lazy to calculate and no feeling for the possible dimensions of such a block). Also, digging new shafts should be prohibitively expensive for energy storage.

[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

Ah yeah I missed that underground part, I mixed it up with another proposal for a freestand crane doing the same....

[–] UmbraTemporis@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago

Putting the blocks onto some internal rail is probably the easiest way, with wheels in constant contact, similar to an elevator.