Pumped Hydro Storage For Solar and Wind

[sumdumguy]

Switzerland according to CBC has hit the nail on the head. When surplus energy allows you pump the water up to top of tower, then when you need energy, you drop it through turbines. It looks like a very cheap structure. (Sarc)

[binthere]

Drat. The law of diminishing returns.

[Guest]

chuck (i think) had eluded to this , pumping water back up to the top of hydro dam when power not needed
very cheap battery !

[chuckChuck]

You boys still using party lines or what? LOL

[AlbertaFarmer5]

https://energyvault.com/ https://energyvault.com/
Apparently Switzerland ran out of mountains and lakes, and is making a tower to store energy instead.
Pumped hydro makes a lot of sene where you have mountains and water.
For anyone not familiar with Switzerland, check out their topography.

[chuckChuck]

A5, did hell just freeze over? Is that you or did someone hack your agriville account? LOL

Are the Swiss good engineers? What a bunch of radical environmentalists!

"Our Solution

For the first time in history, our transformative energy storage technology enables renewables to deliver around-the-clock baseload power for less than the cost of fossil fuels. Energy Vault’s ready-to-deploy solution combined with low cost solar or wind renewable generation is lower than the most economical existing, fully-amortized fossil fuel-based power plants (i.e. combined cycle natural gas).

Our breakthrough technology was inspired by pumped hydro plants that rely on gravity and the movement of water to generate power.

The Energy Vault solution utilizes the same fundamentals of physics and kinetic energy as pumped hydro but replaces the water with custom made composite blocks utilizing an extremely innovative use of low-cost materials.

These low-cost blocks, combined with our patented system design and some very clever control software, has allowed us to deliver all the benefits of a pumped hydro system but at a much lower price, starting size and without the need for hard to find topography."

[workboots]

Has anyone looked at the liquid metal battery technology developed at MIT. It seems like the best solution to the storage problem.

[jazz]

Sure doesnt take chuck long to come in and defend insanity.

Hmm, I wonder if there was a way to store water for power. What about a hydro dam? Nah, how about a man made tower that holds 0.00000000001% of the water a dam would. Yes.

[chuckChuck]

Jazz, it was A5 who brought up the Swiss stored renewable power solution. I said nothing about it, I just posted what was on the website A5 linked. Details Details

A5 bad bad bad. What a traitor to the coal and gas workers for posting a storage system! LOL

[sumdumguy]

No Chuck, all information on innovation is valuable. No matter who posts it.

[Rareearth]

No way pumping water from the bottom of the dam after it goes through turbines back to the top is effective, profitable or otherwise.
I don’t think there is a perpetual motion system yet. Maybe if your short of water for drinking, or heaven forbid irrigation.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

My apologies Chuck, I neglected to use the sarcasm tag, I thought it was obvious.
The only existing economic grid scale storage technology we have is pumped hydro. Which requires only two geographic features, elevation and water.
Switzerland is almost entirely mountains and water. So they built this mechanical contraption instead.

This is in the same category as burning north American trees in British power plants and pretending it doesn't emit CO2.
Anything can be justified in the name of green energy. And Chuck can be counted on to defend it.