Solar PV News

[MontyFloyd]

Watch: Gravity-based renewable energy storage tower for grid-scale operations

Energy Vault secured $100 million in Series C funding for its EVx tower, which stores gravitational potential energy for grid dispatch.

pv-magazine-usa.com

The company said the EVx tower features 80-85% round-trip efficiency and over 35 years of technical life. It has a scalable modular design up to multiple gigawatt-hours in storage capacity.
The company said its technology can economically serve both higher power/shorter duration applications with ancillary services from 2 to 4 hours and can also scale to serve longer-duration requirements from 5 to 24 hours or more.

That is a nightmare Rubegoldbergian design, I am totally opposed to that.

A basic elevated mass in shaft is thousand times better.

Prototype gravity-based energy storage system begins construction

As renewable energy generation grows, so does the need for new storage methods that can be used at times when the Sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. A Scottish company called Gravitricity has now broken ground on a demonstrator facility for a creative new system that stores energy in the…

newatlas.com

It is effectively an elevator, dirt cheap technology.

 

[winfield100]

That is a nightmare Rubegoldbergian design, I am totally opposed to that.

A basic elevated mass in shaft is thousand times better.

Prototype gravity-based energy storage system begins construction

As renewable energy generation grows, so does the need for new storage methods that can be used at times when the Sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. A Scottish company called Gravitricity has now broken ground on a demonstrator facility for a creative new system that stores energy in the…

newatlas.com

It is effectively an elevator, dirt cheap technology.

Gravity Lamp

<img src=http://hoaxes.org/images/bloghoax/gravia.jpg alt= border=0 align=right style=margin:0px 0px 5px 5px;>About two weeks ago it was <a href=http://www.physorg.com/news122622236.html target=_blank>announced</a> that a U.S. grad student, Clay Moulton, won second place in a Greener Gadgets...

hoaxes.org

 

[MontyFloyd]

Gravity Lamp

<img src=http://hoaxes.org/images/bloghoax/gravia.jpg alt= border=0 align=right style=margin:0px 0px 5px 5px;>About two weeks ago it was <a href=http://www.physorg.com/news122622236.html target=_blank>announced</a> that a U.S. grad student, Clay Moulton, won second place in a Greener Gadgets...

hoaxes.org

What?

Such a device I can guarantee will work.
The only issue is how long. 4 hours is BS, but I think 1 hour is possible, with 10kg (22lb) over a 1.5m (4 ft) distance driving a total of 0.25 watts of of LED will provide a about half the illumination of a typical night light (depending).

 

[mspohr]

That is a nightmare Rubegoldbergian design, I am totally opposed to that.

A basic elevated mass in shaft is thousand times better.

Prototype gravity-based energy storage system begins construction

As renewable energy generation grows, so does the need for new storage methods that can be used at times when the Sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. A Scottish company called Gravitricity has now broken ground on a demonstrator facility for a creative new system that stores energy in the…

newatlas.com

It is effectively an elevator, dirt cheap technology.

Not sure why you brand an above ground elevator "a nightmare" and a (more expensive) ground shaft elevator "a thousand times better".
Seem to be the same technology.

 

[MontyFloyd]

Not sure why you brand an above ground elevator "a nightmare" and a (more expensive) ground shaft elevator "a thousand times better".
Seem to be the same technology.

The complexity.
More moving parts = more chance to fail.

A shaft with 1D of moment is far better.
Like an elevator

 

[mspohr]

The complexity.
More moving parts = more chance to fail.

A shaft with 1D of moment is far better.
Like an elevator

So... Six arms bad; One arm good?
Or... Six arms provide redundancy for greater reliability?

 

[MontyFloyd]

So... Six arms bad; One arm good?
Or... Six arms provide redundancy for greater reliability?

0 arm vs 6 arm.

1 motor generator vs 6 motor generator.
0 actuating motors vs 21 (and more??) actuating motors.
less than 10 sensors vs dozens and dozens.
all weather vs bad weather shut down.

Let me put it this way:
If one of the locking motors that grab a block fails, the tower will lose 33% of its max rated power output.

 

[mspohr]

0 arm vs 6 arm.

1 motor generator vs 6 motor generator.
0 actuating motors vs 12 (and more??) actuating motors.
less than 10 sensors vs dozens and dozens.
all weather vs bad weather shut down.

You can look at multiple parallel systems (and sensors) as an advantage. If one fails, the rest keep working.

 

[MontyFloyd]

You can look at multiple parallel systems (and sensors) as an advantage. If one fails, the rest keep working.

Again, more complexity.
Redundancy is mainly a safety factor, not a reliability factor. Adding more for reliability also introduces greater maintenance costs.

It is FAR too complex of a design, a nightmare.
I can think of a number of ways to do the same but be simpler.
Still a simple elevator is a far superior design.

Note: I made edit to previous reply.

 

[mspohr]

Again, more complexity.
Redundancy is mainly a safety factor, not a reliability factor. Adding more for reliability also introduces greater maintenance costs.

It is FAR too complex of a design, a nightmare.
I can think of a number of ways to do the same but be simpler.
Still a simple elevator is a far superior design.

Note: I made edit to previous reply.

Redundancy is usually used to improve reliability and safety.
However, I think we have beaten this subject to the ground. I think we'll have to just agree to disagree.

 

[MontyFloyd]

Redundancy is usually used to improve reliability and safety.
However, I think we have beaten this subject to the ground. I think we'll have to just agree to disagree.

Redundancy is usually used to improve safety, then reliability, the cost of this is added maintenance because more equipment.
I am all for gravity batteries (read my new post?), but that design is unnecessarily complex.

And the useable storage energy is about 1/2 the height of the tower.

An alternative:
Cantilevered bridge straddling edge of cliff, moving fewer but bigger blocks. Far simpler, lower maintenance, same basic principle.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Redundancy is usually used to improve safety, then reliability, the cost of this is added maintenance because more equipment.
I am all for gravity batteries (read my new post?), but that design is unnecessarily complex.

And the useable storage energy is about 1/2 the height of the tower.

An alternative:
Cantilevered bridge straddling edge of cliff, moving fewer but bigger blocks. Far simpler, lower maintenance, same basic principle.

The only things that matter are scalability and cost.
Reliability is a cost input.

 

[MontyFloyd]

The only things that matter are scalability and cost.
Reliability is a cost input.

yes, also location and size as factors.

Imagine the potential energy filling this hole up.

 

[jimm01]

So... Six arms bad; One arm good?
Or... Six arms provide redundancy for greater reliability?

As the article states it's only a prototype, and that was all it described. A full-scale 4-MW project has not been constructed and no image was provided (the image is conceptual). At scale this thing could be just as complex or even more so.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

yes, also location and size as factors.

Imagine the potential energy filling this hole up.

Size matters for scalability and cost.
Location matters for scalability and cost.
That's it.

Complexity is just something that requires more engineering, which is a cost factor.
ICEs are complex, but my last 3 cars' ICEs have never failed. However, those engine required maintenance.
A tower with a number of fixed cranes, is a tower with some cranes.
How much do cranes cost, how often do they fail and how much maintenance do they need?

 

[mspohr]

As the article states it's only a prototype, and that was all it described. A full-scale 4-MW project has not been constructed and no image was provided (the image is conceptual). At scale this thing could be just as complex or even more so.

TFA states they built a commercial deployment last year.

 

[evdude69]

Singapore considering 144MWp of floating solar on reservoirs - We Go Electric

Singapore’s national water agency PUB is considering the installation of two floating solar projects with a combined capacity of 144MWp. This is as part of efforts to utilise the city-state’s reservoirs for renewables generation. Lower Seletar Reservoir and Pandan Reservoir have been identified...

wegoelectric.net

Singapore putting floating solar panels on water. Amazing for such a small country. Wouldn't surprise me if they have that whole country run on renewables soon

 

[evdude69]

That is a nightmare Rubegoldbergian design, I am totally opposed to that.

A basic elevated mass in shaft is thousand times better.

Prototype gravity-based energy storage system begins construction

As renewable energy generation grows, so does the need for new storage methods that can be used at times when the Sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. A Scottish company called Gravitricity has now broken ground on a demonstrator facility for a creative new system that stores energy in the…

newatlas.com

It is effectively an elevator, dirt cheap technology.

some amazing tech right there

 

[jimm01]

TFA states they built a commercial deployment last year.

I was refering to:

Prototype gravity-based energy storage system begins construction

As renewable energy generation grows, so does the need for new storage methods that can be used at times when the Sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. A Scottish company called Gravitricity has now broken ground on a demonstrator facility for a creative new system that stores energy in the…

newatlas.com

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Singapore considering 144MWp of floating solar on reservoirs - We Go Electric

Singapore’s national water agency PUB is considering the installation of two floating solar projects with a combined capacity of 144MWp. This is as part of efforts to utilise the city-state’s reservoirs for renewables generation. Lower Seletar Reservoir and Pandan Reservoir have been identified...

wegoelectric.net

Singapore putting floating solar panels on water. Amazing for such a small country. Wouldn't surprise me if they have that whole country run on renewables soon

Floating popular in Asia. Something they've used to solve 2 problems: lack of space and evaporation.