I have been following them for a few years and they are making some slow and steady progress

From their page: As the world generates more electricity from intermittent renewable energy sources, there is a growing need for technologies which can capture and store energy during periods of low demand and release it rapidly when required.

At Gravitricity we are developing innovative, long-life, underground technologies which store energy safely and deliver it on demand at a lower lifetime cost than current alternatives.

  • @ironhydroxide
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    22 months ago

    The only way to make this crane system work reliably would be to enclose it entirely to protect it from wind, and/or build a huge frame around it to keep the blocks sufficiently aligned… making it a much larger undertaking than just a crane with a bunch of blocks around it.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 months ago

      “Underground” is mentioned in the text above. I know that some people are considering to store heavy blocks connected to ropes in the shafts (?) of old coal mines that go down hundreds of meter. Use a single, very heavy block and you’re good to go. Though I don’t think that it holds a significant amount of energy (too lazy to calculate and no feeling for the possible dimensions of such a block). Also, digging new shafts should be prohibitively expensive for energy storage.

      • @ironhydroxide
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        32 months ago

        Ah yeah I missed that underground part, I mixed it up with another proposal for a freestand crane doing the same…

    • Spectranox
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      32 months ago

      Putting the blocks onto some internal rail is probably the easiest way, with wheels in constant contact, similar to an elevator.