Comment by EGreg
2 days ago
Why not just dig a hole in the ground and make a gravity battery? Would be much more reusable without all the lithium garbage ... and also probably more efficient...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_battery
And the most efficient way would probably be to just have credits with the rest of the city grid. Sell electricity to them when you have a surplus (from solar) and then pay for electricity when you need it. These credits are a lot more efficient than storing the actual electricity in a battery hehe
But how expensive would be to dig a, I don't know, 1000 by 6 feet hole in the ground? I have no idea of an equivalent gravity battery...
The average US household uses about 10,000 kwhr per year. That's roughly equivalent to the gravitational energy of dropping ten tons down a 200 mile hole.
The battery doesn’t have to hold the entire year’s energy — come on :-P
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holes in the ground are just wells, and gravity batteries are just dams. don't reinvent the square wheels, please...