Scientists have devised a system that restores utility to abandoned mines. They would be rehabilitated as batteries capable of generating energy through gravity.
Anything goes to produce and store energy. Our needs for electricity are increasingly important, and building new infrastructure capable of providing it isn't necessarily the ideal solution. So we're trying to use what already exists, for example by creating a kind of cement that transforms houses and roads into giant batteries. Another solution being considered: using gravity. A heavy object falling from a certain height can indeed create electricity.
A system of this kind simply uses water. Released from a high enough height, it turns turbines as it falls, generating current. The liquid mass is then raised to its starting point by pumps using excess energy. Scientists at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria came up with the idea of doing roughly the same thing, but with mine shafts that have ceased to be mined.
Transforming abandoned mines into giant gravity batteries is not science fiction
The principle, called UGES for Underground Gravity Energy Storage, is the same. Using motors located on either side of the structure, elevators in the mine shafts would raise and lower containers filled with sand. Electricity is generated when the elevator brakes. Conveyor belts then take over to unload the sand into the mine tunnels before the containers rise.
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To avoid clogging the tunnels, the excess energy would be used to bring sand to the surface. For the moment, the project has not been materialized, but several entities are interested. And if this idea of a gravity battery rings a bell, that's normal. Others have already imagined integrating it into the immense skyscrapers present in certain cities around the world.
Source: IIASA
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