Renewable energy storage scheme.
 

Here is a storage scheme that parallels the idea of using excess renewable energy to lift large bricks and use the resultant potential energy later.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90261233...edium=referral

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Same concept as using rail cars.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/siteninja/m...S_-_101217.pdf


Central storage areas would work for highly populated areas.

Outside of populated areas, individual systems could be developed.

For instance, a chimney like structure could be added to a home with a
winch-motor-generator and a large weight. (Concrete or water)

Many years ago, I think it was Popular Science. Had a article that proposed putting a large concrete flywheel in the basement of a home for energy storage.


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Frictional losses verses evaporation of reservoirs or cost of water towers?

I learned about the below a few months ago, similar to as described in the article I suspect.

Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luding...ge_Power_Plant
The below is new to me as well, it is interesting.

The cost of land would have a serious affect on that system, as much as geography has on the earth berm reservoir systems.

Yea, the original concept posted offers a lot of advantages.

The trouble is in sheer mass that is needed to be transported. Lets say you want to make a cup of tea. To heat cup of water you need Q=cmdT, having m=0,2 kg; dT=85'C;c=4200 kJ/kg'C gives amount of 71400 Joules. Thats equivalent of rising 1 ton concrete block into height of 7 meters!

For any practical implementation you need to literally move mountains. Real time.

Space elevator and energy storage-

When excess power is generated, reel the space elevator in a bit with an electric motor. To get the power back out, the centrifugal force will spin the generator as the elevator unwinds.

Very simple physics math tells us this isn't really useful, unless you have something the size of a lake.

Which makes it quite impressive to compare to the energy content of modern batteries or a gallon of gasoline.

Hasn't PGE been doing this for forever at Huntington lake just north of FRESNO?

The lake is full at dinnertime, perhaps 5 ft lower at dawn

Not quite the same: they just adjust the rate at which water flows out through the generators, rather than pumping it back up. (At least as far as I could find.) This is done to some extent with most dams.

... What is clever actually. Let the Sun do the actual pumping! (well, and the Rain too...)

Yes, when you get down to fundamentals, hydroelectricity IS solar power :-)

Everything is solar power, including fossil fuels, except for nuclear power (which is supernova power, or whatever mechanism creates the heavy and unstable atoms).

I'm solar powered. Thought about making a tee shirt that said as much.

Not really. Geothermal is a mix of supernova (all those radioisotopes decaying underground) and gravity.

To build elements heavier than Te is a process called the proton capture process.

It is more accurate to say we are nuclear powered.
 

All our energy currently comes from some form of nuclear energy - sun or the earths core. Unless you can capture the energy of a passing asteroid and turn its kinetic energy into a usable energy form.

The first proton accelerator I worked on spent a lot of time doing this.
 

A large part of our day was spent on elemental research. The nights were also filled with government guys with black boxes and lots of armed security using our proton accelerator to shoot beams into their black boxes. Then they would go away. Until they had another black box to shoot.

Also, neutron generators are used in heavy element creation.

Looking at it that way, sort of blows one's mind.