[–] WorkingDead ago (edited ago)
All this would work great if you lived in the desert.........
[–] Maxcactus [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
I think that we should be doing what we can where can do it. Every city has available roof space for solar collectors. As we shift to more electric vehicles I bet they will eventually come with photo voltaic surfaces. I understand that most commercial vehicles average about 100 miles use per day. If all of those trucks had battery packs that charged all day and were changed out each night with fully charged batteries off the shelf technology could take them out of the petroleum use pool. A local beer distributor recently put enough solar collectors on its warehouse roofs to power its refrigeration needs. Just look around at all of the roof space over gas station pump areas. Most of those stations could probably do the same thing. It costs a little more up front but will pay off in the long run.
[–] sheepsexplode 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago (edited ago)
[–] Maxcactus [S] ago (edited ago)
That looks like it would work and would be easily expandable once it was perfected. Mostly off the shelf technology. Air bladders a and pressurized pipes were figured out a long time ago. I wonder why they included the underground approach? They could have just run a pipe along the surface and extended it out into the water depth required.
[–] sheepsexplode 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I think it is to prevent damage to the line but I am not sure either.
[–] massiveprivilege 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
Use the surplus energy to pump water uphill then release it down whenever you need energy.
[–] WorkingDead 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
We've already done it just about everywhere it's feasible. It also takes a LOT of water and you have to make an artificial lake which destroys a huge amount of land and is not environmentally friendly at all.
[–] softdown ago
The military is promising some battery energy storage break throughs. They like to run silent and fast...or deep. They also like to wait a few years before releasing........... Right now energy storage is in a pretty miserable, ~1930's tech, spot. Lead batteries have not changed much. Lithium is expensive.