Solar Battery
So lately, I had been thinking about a water battery I heard of. This isn't exactly the kind that you can put into your car or in toys. It is actually 2 reservoirs. Now the Idea is that it is really expensive to buy energy during the day time hours and cheaper at night when the demand is not so great. For all those Economists out there I think this is the law of Supply and Demand, but it is modified by the fact that the more energy you produce the more it costs to produce it. You also have to use the energy when it is made (even if storing it is the way you use it).
So here is how the water battery works. During the night time when electricity is cheap, you use it to pump water from one holding tank or reservoir to one much higher. It takes work to get the water to go up and overcome gravity. During the day, when electricity is expensive, they let the water down through turbines and produce electricity like a hydro-electric dam would. Then you have made a battery out of water.
Here is my idea I was thinking about during the past few days. I finally put it down on 'paper' or at least the computer version of it. It uses the principles of evaporation and condensation to get the water up to a higher holding tank. Then it is just the same idea as the water battery. It is just a different way of getting the water up there. So, here is a rough schematic. What do you think about this possibility?
So lately, I had been thinking about a water battery I heard of. This isn't exactly the kind that you can put into your car or in toys. It is actually 2 reservoirs. Now the Idea is that it is really expensive to buy energy during the day time hours and cheaper at night when the demand is not so great. For all those Economists out there I think this is the law of Supply and Demand, but it is modified by the fact that the more energy you produce the more it costs to produce it. You also have to use the energy when it is made (even if storing it is the way you use it).
So here is how the water battery works. During the night time when electricity is cheap, you use it to pump water from one holding tank or reservoir to one much higher. It takes work to get the water to go up and overcome gravity. During the day, when electricity is expensive, they let the water down through turbines and produce electricity like a hydro-electric dam would. Then you have made a battery out of water.
Here is my idea I was thinking about during the past few days. I finally put it down on 'paper' or at least the computer version of it. It uses the principles of evaporation and condensation to get the water up to a higher holding tank. Then it is just the same idea as the water battery. It is just a different way of getting the water up there. So, here is a rough schematic. What do you think about this possibility?
posted by The Pagets in Florida at 3:21 PM
7 Comments:
I think that sounds great! I have a couple of questions: Are we talking about using this at our homes, or are we talking about car stuff? Is this for warm temperature places or do will this work in freezing temperatures? How much energy will this actually produce?
Because the law of entropy is in play, it will inevitably take more energy to get the water up to the higher tank than than will be produced as it comes down. But you know that, so the real variable we would need to know is the difference in the price of day-night energy. Is there a big difference in these prices? It would seem that the costs of storing the energy for the energy company would not be great (or are they?), and therefore that they would have an incentive to hold onto it for 12 more hours so that they could sell again at the higher price. But I don't know much about energy rates.
Is there a way to use solar energy to increase the rate of evaporation?
Sorry, I must have left that part out. Instead of using a pump to raise the water to a higher reservoir, you have let the water evaporate via the sun. This means you are using the sun's energy to move the water instead of electricity from a pump. The top of the canopy acts as a vapor shield for the moisture to condensate and fall into the higher container kind of like a lid on a pot. So there is not actually any electricity used. The water that comes down goes through a turbine of sorts hooked to a generator to make power.
Anna, this would not power a car. As far as temperatures, this would actually work best in an area with a lot of direct sun light which would mean probably no freezing weather. Water doesn't actually need to be used. It could be another liquid like alcohol which evaporates quickly. I am not sure how much energy this would actually generate. That would take some calculations that I haven't done yet. Depending on the scale of the system, it could power some things, but it probably wouldn't be continuous electricity.
I got your concept right away. Very interesting! In as much as this is really solar powered, it would be interesting to ask a physicist if this would generate more energy from the sun that a solar mirror array trained at a steam tower. Oh, I know a physicist. What do you think?
I ma not sure which would generate more electricity. I have never seen a comparison of hydroelectric to steam turbines in efficiency. I would probably have to assume that steam pressurized flowing through a turbine might be more effective than simply harnessing the kinetic energy from the flow of water caused by gravity. But you bring up an interesting point. The two systems could be coupled to generate more electricity in a closed system of sorts.
If you used the sunlight on a mirror to heat a pipe of a high heat tolerant substance like oil or even break fluid (which is a method already used in the western desert areas of the world) and sent it into the lower reservoir to create steam instead of waiting for evaporation to occur, Then the steam could be converted into power through a turbine (just like nearly every other power plant be it gas or coal or nuclear). After passing through the turbine, the steam could be collected and held in a higher reservoir until it could gain sufficient mass to be released into the lower reservoir through a hydroelectric turbine.
I am guessing this possibility has already been explored by some researchers. I think the interesting part would be to just make enough energy for a household, not necessarily an entire town. Really, if a system could be built to run a household on say, 1/8th of an acre, then most households could have their own self contained power plant. People have used these ideas for a long time. Just think about the solar hot water heaters at a scout camp or something which are no more than a 55 gallon drum filled with water and painted black so they would absorb the sun's light. It is an interesting possibility.
I think the scale of what you are suggesting would be really huge for a very small amount of power output. Think how much water would have to flow to get the generation you are looking for - then think about how slowly water evaporates.
Conceptually it's a great idea. I just don't know how pratical it is.
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