Once in a while, I am thinking about how to store energy. Concepts I was thinking about so far:
- Double use the tower of wind turbines by lifting weights inside it: Sadly not really an option. Even if it would be possible, the capacity would be just ~10 minutes of buffering.
- Using photovoltaics to pumping water into a reservoir on the roof of a building: Physically a similar idea than above, just more worse because we have to convert the electricity forth and back. So, no option either.
- Store the energy of roof solar panels as heat: If we take a one meter cube filled with water and heat it to nearly boiling, that would make already 4000 cups of coffee or ~20 hot bathtubs. Impressive! think about if we use a whole cellar room as storage.
- And what about batteries? Let’s compare: A Tesla Powerwall contains 13,5 kWh, that are a bit more than 500 cups of coffee. Not that bad, at least capacity wise.