Thorizan | Just like with standard home heating systems, you can get astonomically high efficiencies, if you are willing to pay huge sums to get them. I think many people will settle for lower energy efficiencies, if it makes more economical sense to do so. $.20/kWh vs. $.25/kWh, with the difference being a system that costs $30k vs. one that costs $3k. I totally pulled those numbers out of the air, so take them as they are, but if something like that were to exist, it could take a seasteading lifetime to recoup those cost differencials. __________________________________________________
There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. Each to his fate. |
i_is_j_smith | I found a U.S. Department of Energy document from Sept 2003 that talks about flywheels and their potential to replace batteries in UPS systems: www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/fta_flywheel.pdf On page 6 it talks about costs ranging from $100 to $300/kW, with another $20 to $40/kW for installation. If we use these numbers for the 25kWh/250kW system from Beacon Power then you are looking at $85k at the most for purchase and installation of a 25kWh system, and that number could be as low as $15k if you take the low end of that range. And this is from 6 years ago, so I’m sure the numbers are even more reasonable now. I’ll see if I can find some more up-to-date pricing for these large flywheel systems. But it’s not just about pricing. You can stick a 100ton weight on the end of a rope, attach the rope to a generator, and make an energy storage system. But how would you perform maintenance on that? And what if the rope snaps? How do you swap out generators? You need a system that is easy to maintain, modular so you can swap out components without bringing the whole system down, and efficient so you get the most bang for your buck. |
catech | So you’re idea is to re-create the same effect of pressure behind a dam to push a turbine, but make it portable and non-toxic. The delivery system here instead would be rainclouds instead of pumps. It works great, and you can raise fish in there too. Toss a couple of syphons in there and you’ll be GTG. I’m quite interested to see how this would work on a larger scale like hetch hetchy near Yosemite. |
Jeff-Chan | i_is_j_smith wrote: BTW, any reason for the increase in spam lately on the boards…or is that just because TSI is so popular lately?  I nuked the spam in this thread and the spammer. If anyone spots more, let me know. Davy Jones’ locker to them all. |
Jeff-Chan | Jesrad wrote: Why not directly use the seastead itself as the weight for generating current ? On a tall spar design, just let water inside tanks in the lower spar to generate current, “refill” by pumping the water out. You get a comparable height difference, but a MUCH higher mass, without destabilizing the structure. A good idea except that we’re generally going to want the seasteads to be a high above the water as practical in order to deal with (rogue) waves, etc. |
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