Hoover dam as giant battery

[RustyLugNut]

Where is the external input of energy coming from to perform this pumped storage scheme? Is it from solar and wind?

Somebody clarify this for me.

I understand the greater bulk of the water at the dams never pass through the generators. It seems this is a waste, and it is. A simple high temperature electrolysis scheme to produce Hydrogen from water to store some of that wasted energy seems logical. Someone posted in another thread the possibility of using rail cars in gravity storage schemes. That is another possibility, though limited as a transport energy carrier.

Oil Pan4 hit on an easily executed scheme that is very plausible. Use the electrically produced hydrogen and bond it to a carbon to make methanol. It is concentrated and easily stored for years. It is transportable. It can be used to produce energy or plastics. All this technology is already in use. So why not?

[freebeard]

I am still unclear as to the workings of this plan.
Where is the external input of energy coming from to perform this pumped storage scheme? Is it from solar and wind?

Somebody clarify this for me.
....
Someone posted in another thread the possibility of using rail cars in gravity storage schemes. That is another possibility, though limited as a transport energy carrier.

I'd go with 'from the grid'. Electricity is fungible. It's a form of load balancing.

I haven't been able to find it again, but someone posted an article about a proposal to Laser-cut a massive plug in a mountain and lift it with compressed air. Compressed air had adiabatic problems.

For the homestead prepper I propose a flagpole with barbell weights on pulleys. ...say 1/4 ton over 40 ft, that would be 20,000ft-lb. (271163.59 joules FWIW).

[oil pan 4]

Damn to methanol?
All I can say is it would probably be better than corn to ethanol.
The only problem is the United States isn't setup to use a lot of methanol fuel.
Also you need a really cheap, nearly free source of CO2 to make the methane from hydrogen. Pulling CO2 from the air isn't free, unless you just happen to be building the world's largest cryogenic plant and just happen to have tons of left over dry ice that wasn't going to be used for anything.
Pulling CO2 from power plant exhaust, maybe.

[RustyLugNut]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Damn to methanol?
All I can say is it would probably be better than corn to ethanol.
The only problem is the United States isn't setup to use a lot of methanol fuel.
Also you need a really cheap, nearly free source of CO2 to make the methane from hydrogen. Pulling CO2 from the air isn't free, unless you just happen to be building the world's largest cryogenic plant and just happen to have tons of left over dry ice that wasn't going to be used for anything.
Pulling CO2 from power plant exhaust, maybe.

That and carbonaceous waste streams ( trash ).