Worldwide scientists are working to shift away from a world dependent on fossil-fuel. Although solar and wind power are becoming cheaper and easily accessible in most of the world. But it is very expensive to use batteries to store energy. So, without effective energy storage techniques, fossil fuels are required when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t howling.
Now UK-based startup ‘RheEnergise’ has come up with a novel method for storing renewable energy using the gravity of hills.
Similar to hydropower plants
Hydropower plants pump water up mountains when energy is cheap, and then release it when extra electricity is required. And the energy is generated by spinning turbines. Just like Hydropower plants, RheEnergise’s system also uses the gravity of hills.
But in this system, instead of using water, it pumps a fluid that’s two and a half times denser. That implies it can store the same amount of energy on a smaller hill.
Eco-friendly
This new system does not require building any huge hydropower plants, as it can be built on relatively small hills. As a result, the system has a lesser impact on the environment and can be applied to a wider range of areas.
The system can work perfectly to store the specific amount of energy produced by a nearby solar or wind farm.
Stephen Crosher, chief executive of RheEnergise, said, “As the energy grid is transitioning to accommodate these distributed generation technologies, you also need a distributed storage technology, so you store it more locally to where it’s been produced,”
He continues. “Then as you scale down the projects, rather than taking decades to build them, you can build projects in nine months, for a small one, and maybe 15 months for a large project,”
