TEDx Talk Hydraulic Hydro Storage

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The TEDx talk slides withe the original sound track!
Our energy system is outdated; coal, gas and oil are finite.
Independent of the definite date of exhaustion, we have to change to renewables.
Another reason is global warming; we have to reduce our carbon emission.
This switch is not easy; there is one major block on the road: Storage.
Storage is the key to renewable energy.

Let's try to understand the global growth of renewable energy, special the growth of photovoltaic.
In this plot, I present the installed capacity of photovoltaic. The scaling is logarithmic, that means, every major line is a factor of ten.
We start in the ninety's, only 100MW of photovoltaic where installed, mainly in the US.
What happened during the last two decades? At the beginning of the nineties, the US was the leading photovoltaic country.
Then came Japan with a strong growth of photovoltaic, overtaken by Germany in the new century.
But the race is on, Spain, Italy, Australia, even Canada and others have a steep development. On a global scale, even the growth rate is growing. And in 2012 we crossed the 100GW as I learned yesterday!
In the case that the growth rate is 30% every year, what will happen?
Within the next decade, the production of photovoltaic power reaches the global demand for electricity.
My idea is, don't pump water up the hill, pump water below the hill, lift the hill and store the energy!
That is the basic idea of the Hydraulic Hydro Storage

To build such a system, we have to look into the ground.
We want to cut free a block, the size of a stadium.
The first step is, to dig a shaft in the ground. From there we drill two circular service tunnels.
From the surface, we drill holes into the ground, to guide the sawing strings.
Sawing strings, as used in a quarry, cut out the surface of the cylinder.
Then we can lift the cylinder, but don't forget the O-rings to seal the system.
All the necessary technologies are well known in the mining industry.

Assuming, we are able to cut free such a huge block, the physical properties are amazing.
The cylinder should have a regular shape, as high as the diameter. This means, the height is two times the radius.
And we can lift the cylinder up to a height of the radius r. If we would move it beyond r, it could get stuck, not a god idea for such a huge block.

Calculating the mass of this block is simple, it is proportional to the third power of the radius.
The height we can lift the block is r.
The Calculation of the storage capacity is straight forward; the rule is strength of the gravitation, multiplied by the mass and the height.
That's all, to be more precise we have to consider the density of the rock and some geometric properties.
Amazingly, the storage capacity is growing with the fourth power of the radius.
This is not very exciting, if the cost of the system grow as fast, but this is not the case.
The cost grows proportional with the surface, and that is definitely proportional to the second power of the radius.
The result is a unique decrease of cost per kWh with size. One divided by the second power of the radius.

Keep the math simple and say:

Double the radius and the price drops to a quarter per kWh storage capacity.
This is the unique property of the new system!

Let's come back to our checklist for the perfect storage system.
The Hydraulic Hydro Storage has a low price per kWh, due to the fascinating scaling effect; the price can go down to a few Dollars per kWh storage capacity.
The efficiency is similar to pumped hydro, and we know, pumped hydro has 80% efficiency
Last not least: The footprint is a hundred times smaller than an upper basin of a pumped hydro system.
There is no toxic or radioactive waste; there is no waste at all.

Renewable energy as solar energy and wind power need storage,
Solving the storage problem means:
We will have a clean and sustainable future!
Thank you for your attention!

Видео TEDx Talk Hydraulic Hydro Storage канала Eduard Heindl