Name: Mine shafts set to become energy storage hubs thanks to British invention
Brand: inews.co.uk
SKU: inews-co-uk-14
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Mine shafts set to become energy storage hubs thanks to British invention

preview

A novel storage technology, which involves suspending heavy weights above deep mine shafts, is a “serious&nbsp;contender” in the global energy storage market,&nbsp;its creators have said.&nbsp;&nbsp;Gravitricity&nbsp;told&nbsp;&nbsp;its&nbsp;demonstrator project built in&nbsp;Edinburgh earlier this year&nbsp;has proved a success, with&nbsp;the team raising and lowering two 25-tonne weights to generate power.&nbsp;&nbsp;“These tests confirm our modelling and show that gravity energy storage is a serious contender in the global energy storage market,” said company managing director Charlie Blair.&nbsp;&nbsp;To meet climate goals the UK needs to get most of its electricity from . But maintaining a steady supply of power to homes and businesses when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine will require large-scale energy storage. Using gravity to store power could be a cheaper, greener way of storing energy for the grid compared to&nbsp;lithium-ion batteries, Gravitricity believes. It would also save , which are also needed for batteries in electric cars. Under Gravitricity’s system, weights are winched above mine shafts using green power generated on sunny or windy days, ready to be dropped&nbsp;to generate power&nbsp;when renewable output slumps&nbsp;or the grid needs power to “balance” its output.&nbsp;&nbsp;Unlike batteries, which have a relatively short lifespan, gravity storage could work for more than 25 years with no loss of output. Studies suggest it would also be&nbsp;50 per cent cheaper than using batteries over its lifetime.&nbsp;&nbsp;Gravitricity’s&nbsp;Edinburgh demonstrator raised and lowered weights above ground. The start-up&nbsp;now plans to start fundraising for a full-scale project&nbsp;that will see&nbsp;500-tonne&nbsp;weights dropped down into mine shafts&nbsp;750&nbsp;metres&nbsp;deep.&nbsp;Each weight would produce about 1MWh of energy storage capacity, enough to provide power to hundreds of homes for an hour, and would cost £8 to £16m to build. The UK,&nbsp;Poland,&nbsp;South Africa,&nbsp;and the Czech Republic are being considered as locations, with&nbsp;plans for the new site to be up and running by 2024.“In the UK we are considering brownfield sites and are also looking at the potential to sink a new-purpose built shaft in partnership with a major British civil engineering firm,”&nbsp;Mr&nbsp;Blair said.&nbsp;Eventually there could be “thousands” of mine shafts used as storage sites around the world, he added.&nbsp;&nbsp;

A novel storage technology, which involves suspending heavy weights above deep mine shafts, is a “serious&nbsp;contender” in the global energy storage market,&nbsp;its creators have said.&nbsp;&nbsp;Gravitricity&nbsp;told&nbsp;&nbsp;its&nbsp;demonstrator project built in&nbsp;Edinburgh earlier this year&nbsp;has proved a success, with&nbsp;the team raising and lowering two 25-tonne weights to generate power.&nbsp;&nbsp;“These tests confirm our modelling and show that gravity energy storage is a serious contender in the global energy storage market,” said company managing director Charlie...

public

Madeleine Cuff

Your essential daily briefing. Follow us  @ipaperviews 🗣️  @ipapersport 🏉  @ipapermoney 📈  @iPaperTravel ✈️ Sign up for exclusive journalism 📨 http://inews.co.uk/subscribe

inews.co.uk

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Mine shafts set to become energy storage hubs thanks to British invention

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS