The Company’s comprehensive offerings include proprietary gravity-based storage, battery storage, and green hydrogen energy storage technologies.
It looks like they used lithium ion batteries for this but I’m not confident in that. I only poked around their website a little, tho. I’m curious what gravity based would look like. Maybe I should poke around more!
Tom Scott: Britain’s largest battery is actually a lake
That’s really cool! I’m not sure where this fits in on the renewable spectrum (i could have missed it) but I haven’t heard about this. Thanks for sharing!
Isn’t gravity based the thing where the mechanism is, crudely, a rock tied to a rope gets lifted, then the mechanism locks it, and when energy is needed the lock releases, dropping the rock and spinning the turbine?
Takes more energy to lift the rock, but the lock costs almost no energy, and when energy depletes, the lock releases, drops the rock, and offers reserve energy.
Basically all electricity generation, but a rock and a rope.
There’s several gravity based things. Some lift a piston of rock, some drop weights down old mine shafts…
Hydroelectric Dams are a gravity based battery. Crudely, water falling spins the turbine generating electricity. One of the few power generating methods that doesn’t involve first turning water to steam to spin the turbine.
Maybe? I’ve also read about using water storage. I really don’t know much about using gravity.
I’d like to see these spread through neighborhoods, rather than at one central location. It would cut down on power outages due to storms/downed lines.
Both is better. Centralised is more efficient for maintenance and cost. Distributed allows less transport cost for the power and less chance of total failure, ut more chance of individual failure.
One of the issues with transitioning is the grid is designed with large plants in mind. Using existing infrastructure more efficiently makes renewables more attractive for investment, which hastens the transition.
Large scale batteries tend to need to be connected to the grid to function, they need to sync with the grid frequency, and can’t run by themselves.
I guess they built it there so it can make use of existing infrastructure without too many major changes .
That drives up maintenance significantly. You suddenly need your technicians driving around everywhere servicing small units rather than at one central location making sure the main unit is online.
🤷♂️. Like technicians aren’t already driving around servicing transformers and downed power lines. It’s not like a battery pack requires daily maintenance.
NV Energy CEO Dough Cannon
That’s the real highlight here
