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[–] 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.

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[–] WorkingDead ago  (edited ago)

All this would work great if you lived in the desert.........

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[–] Maxcactus [S] 0 points 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.

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[–] tame 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

I hear molten salt batteries are hot right now.

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[–] softdown 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Bet we feel salty in the final analysis.

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[–] Jourdy288 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Hopefully they stay that way.

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[–] sheepsexplode 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago  (edited ago)

THIS Compressed air stored in bags under water. Toronto hydro is testing. Video

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[–] tame ago 

The problem with compressing air is that you lose a lot of energy as heat, so it's really inefficient for long term storage. Great for very short term though, there was a regen braking system for trucks that used compressed air stored in insulated tanks.

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[–] 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.

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[–] sheepsexplode 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I think it is to prevent damage to the line but I am not sure either.

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[–] k_digi 0 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago 

what about the last minute of this video where this guy loses it because of the ridiculousness of the fact that he can use kitchen material to build better 'capacitors' than any corp or government. (officially)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ce2au3PWnI

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[–] massiveprivilege 0 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago 

Use the surplus energy to pump water uphill then release it down whenever you need energy.

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[–] klobos ago 

That idea has been around for a long time now but still hasn't been used. There must be a reason why. I hope it isn't patent related.

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[–] WorkingDead 0 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.

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[–] tame ago 

Because it needs a shit ton of water. A tower ain't cutting it, you need a lake.

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[–] sheepsexplode 1 point 1 point (+2|-1) ago 

Water tower?