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Re: Electrons



Another state energy official, thinking about the problem of storing energy
(like solar electric energy collected during daytime hours), once came up
with this idea, which really excited him: Use the excess to lift heavy
weights (like steel bars) into the air, and retrieve their (gravitational
potential) energy by lowering them again. I did a back-of-the-envelope
calculation, which you might like to reproduce, to show him what would be
entailed in storing, say, one million Btu (approximately one billion
joules), what a house might use for heating on a cold night. He gave up on
the idea.

There's nothing wrong with that idea; it is an old one. The practical
implementation is to pump water back up into a reservoir instead of
lifting a weight. In peak hours the water stored can be used to
generate electric power [sic].

Leigh