Thread: Holy grail of battery storage

Pretty sure the US have been using base power generation to pump water upstream, at night, for daytime hydro generation use for 50 years in California at least.

DL

Converting kinetic energy to potential energy is nothing new. It has a lot of losses in the systems.
The battery technology parts of those articles lack detail.

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Converting kinetic energy to potential energy is nothing new. It has a lot of losses in the systems.
The battery technology parts of those articles lack detail.

Or converting efficiently generated electrical energy back to potential (hydro) when the base load is off has losses as well, but the sum benefit can actually be............... beneficial.

DL

Originally Posted by 350RRC

Or converting efficiently generated electrical energy back to potential (hydro) when the base load is off has losses as well, but the sum benefit can actually be............... beneficial.

DL

Good job we'll have water to pump upstream now that the desal is ramping up.

There are better ways to provide energy to the grid 24/7. Battery storage is too costly in development and maintenance. More suited to off grid stand alone systems. Although battery technology appears to have moved ahead in leaps and bounds, in recent times, the development appears to have plateaued.

Originally Posted by 350RRC

Pretty sure the US have been using base power generation to pump water upstream, at night, for daytime hydro generation use for 50 years in California at least.

DL

Australia has been doing it since 1970 at Kangaroo valley and to is also intergated in a way that Sydneys water supply is backed up in drought times.
The cost of pumping water from Kangaroo river to Fizroy resevoir is great in terms of energy used (about 1600ft lift)
The system has been making a profit in most of those years by draining down the water during peak and using cheaper off peak electricity to pump back up at night.
The greens will not let us build similar systems anywhere else in australia anymore because it requires dams.
I think the snowy hydro can do similar energy storage pumping.

Speaks of the Holy Grail but Zero detail on what they may or may not have achieved in the 7 years.

c'est la vache?

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

Australia has been doing it since 1970 at Kangaroo valley and to is also intergated in a way that Sydneys water supply is backed up in drought times.
The cost of pumping water from Kangaroo river to Fizroy resevoir is great in terms of energy used (about 1600ft lift)
The system has been making a profit in most of those years by draining down the water during peak and using cheaper off peak electricity to pump back up at night.
The greens will not let us build similar systems anywhere else in australia anymore because it requires dams.
I think the snowy hydro can do similar energy storage pumping.

Australia's pretty flat in any case, in comparison with the other continents. There just aren't that many places where hydro can be built in the first place.

The idea of giant flywheels suspended on superconducting bearings seems to fallen out of favour.
About 10 years ago this was the next BIG THING.

AFAIK the Coral Bay wind/generator hybrid system uses smaller flywheels to balance out the power pulses from wind and generator start up.

Think of all those big pits in the Hunter valley where they could locate very large flywheels on superconducting magnet bearings .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_energy_storage

Regards Philip A