Quote:
Originally Posted by RustyLugNut
The costs seem excessive for what it is but that could just be due to the newness of the application and the over scrutiny required.
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The high relative cost is due to the small relative scale. Hauling a few boxcars of rocks up 2,000 feet doesn't provide much electrical buffering compared to the price to build and operate the infrastructure.
I wonder how efficient it is at returning the energy it consumes? How does this compare to hydro storage and other buffering strategies?
Things like rails, wheels and bearings are wear items and would need periodic replacement. I would think maintenance on a hydro system could be lower, but I don't know what the frictional losses are.