How can we harness gravity to solve our energy needs?

Gravity batteries are a new big hope for storing excess renewable electricity. The idea is ingenious. Does it pass the reality check?

#PlanetA #GravityBattery #EnergyStorage

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

Credits:
Reporter: Jonas Mayer
Camera: Killian Bayer
Video Editor: Neven Hillebrands
Supervising Editors: Kiyo Dörrer, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann, Joanna Gottschalk & Michael Trobridge
Technical support: Andreas Madreiter
Factcheck: Kirsten Funck
Thumbnail: Em Chabridon

Read more:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:56 How it works
03:25 New and big
05:49 The cost hurdle
07:45 Going underground
09:40 Pistons, ski lifts and skyscrapers
10:38 What now?

[DWPlanetA]

How is energy stored in your area? Do you think gravity batteries are the way to go?

[opexe]

I'll be honest, I don't foresee any other Gravity energy storage being genuinely viable outisde pumped hydro and perhaps the using of old mineshafts. Pumped hydro because it's a mature and very functional technology, and the mineshaft one simply because the mineshafts already exist, and aren't in use. The big Gravity Vault projects are ones that I would personally not bet on.

[teamlegebatterie]

gravity storage belongs to the category "junk tech"
just like solar roads, hyperloop or the line

[D.y]

Nothing beats good ol' pumped-storage hydroelectricity. Don't fall for concrete towers

[PaleRejent]

" *PUMPED STORAGE HYDRO ELECTRICITY* "

Adam something

[Fenthule]

I'm 30 seconds into the video and I can already see some junk science being displayed in here so I'm gunna hop into the comments quick. Gravity batteries don't work with solids. The concept falls apart when you adjust for things like wear and tear on critical factors like the cables used to winch the weights up and down. The cost will quickly outweigh the benefits. These systems ARE incredibly energy efficient when done with liquids however. The issue is that they require very specific types of geography in order to make them viable, which isn't available everywhere sadly. But where they do exist, they are some of the best long term, high capacity energy storage systems known to humans.

There's a slightly modified version I've heard of, that I doubt will be included in this video known as ACAES, or Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage. There was such a system being looked at somewhere in Ontario Canada iirc, where they wanted to use an old mine shaft, build a reservoir nearby, flood the mine, and pump air into it, forcing the water to the surface reservoir, while ALSO saving heat energy from the compression of air forcing the water up. I admittedly haven't looked into this system in like a year or two though since first hearing about it. It was showing some very high round trip energy storage potential too though.

edit: I've now scanned through the video and it looks like this is basically a paid for ad by gadgetbahn companies that are scams targeted at investors. This is really tragic to see that even DW would fall for this type of thing. Gadgetbahn truly is a plague on the modern world these days. *sigh*

[markclawrie]

What an absolute pile of nonsense from these crowd funding chancers. Get out your school physics textbook and open page 1. Then work out why this will never be cost effective. Stick to hydroelectric...

[AdjectiveBlazkowicz]

Nothing better than seeing an education channel sell off a long-debunked idea.
Truly makes us trust your research guys!

[igorsm]

Bro, there must be more intelligent solutions

[MvanPelt]

The title of the video is much more optimistic than the conclusion suggests. Me and many other viewers might have already heard of these concepts and are very unimpressed, so don't be surprised if the responses will be quite negative even though the actual video is fine.

[duckente]

In terms of density, space and infrastructure cost, I think pressurized gas makes more sense

[mgt]

Ever heard of pumped hydro power?

It's like this but better!

[patrickmckowen]

Interesting, but with the cost of batteries coming down fast and life increasing dramatically, I don't see how gravity can compete in any aspect.
Cheers

[ZippyPiglin]

Are we all forgetting wet-cell batteries? It's cheaper than Lithium, and likely more efficient than Lithium when upscaled to industrial capacities. Much lower risk of accidents, if any other than possible liquid leaks, which are much easier to manage than anything else.

[akshatrai]

Watch the video of Adam Something before this

[jtleyko]

Pumped hydro has so many fewer moving parts that can break or need maintenance.

[dudewithgreenhat]

Tech bro just reinvented a worst dam that's more expensive

[off-gridsurvivalmike]

I honestly thought of this idea 30 or more years ago. But after doing the math of how much weight moving one foot it takes to create one horsepower I realized it's just not practical unless you destroy a mountain or some outlandish idea it's just not practical. All of the moving parts also make it a nonviable solution in my opinion. Basically it's the same as hydroelectric like another gentleman mentioned.

[adamlytle]

Any physics nerds out there know how that big energy vault building in china would compare to doing a comparably sized pumped hydro storage facility using existing water tower designs? Picture 2 water towers vertically stacked in an hourglass configuration with the pump/generator in between. My gut says that it might not have quite the same storage capacity, but would be MUCH simpler/cheaper to build and maintain?

[brendanpells]

As someone that has spent much of their working life dealing with cranes and hoisting equipment, I can state with confidence that this idea is completely impractical.