Re: Electrons

[Bob Sciamanda <trebor@VELOCITY.NET>]

It is not uncommon practice for power companies to do just this - on a
large scale.
In the cases I know of it is water which is pumped to a high elevation
during off-peak times.

Bob Sciamanda (W3NLV)
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (em)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurent Hodges" <lhodges@IASTATE.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 12:51 PM
Subject: 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.
>
> Laurent Hodges