Hi all.  I was part of this forum some time ago. I have not been around for some time. I wont take up a lot of your time. I know most people on the forum have solar so decided to ask you for your help.

My son is doing another science expo at school this year. We decided to make a Gravity Battery that will store the solar power during the day by lifting a weight. Checkout the video to see the model we build. It is not done yet but it works 100% to show the concept. Can I ask you to answer one of these 2 short surveys regarding storing your energy. We have 2 surveys. One is if you have renewable like wind or solar and the other is if you don't have. Thank you.

If you have solar please complete this one :

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z9BTW7N

And if you done then complete this one.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZJWLMCY

Here is the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LoXa6pSLh0

 

Kind Regards.

Nice model! Shame, that it's not possible to use that solar panel as a source...that would move it to a completely another level

 

Tell us some details about that gravity storage part, please:

- How is "charging" controlled? End switch? ESP32?

- Does it really generate the power for that night lights that are shining in the house?

- How about to use that panel together with a halogen floodlight to emulate the Sun?

 

Hi. It really does make power yes. I used a Gravity Light in the model as they did all the work to figure out the gear ratios etc.

The system works with the Solar Panel, I also tested it with a floodlight to act as the sun and it also works fine. They have a space restriction in the exhibition hall so we decided to use the LAB power to drive the motor , fake sun and control. The light and movement in the house comes from the Gravity Light power.

I used a normal Arduino to control everything. PWM to drive the speed of the motor etc.

 

 

 

 

He's baaack.... 🙂

Trouble remains the sheer amount of matter that you have to put somewhere. E = ρ*v*g*h, density times volume times gravity times height.

If you lift a lead block of a cubic meter (weighs about 11 tones) 100 meters into the air, you'd have 11000*9.8*100 ~= 11MJ (roughly). That's 3kWh. I need two of those to get to the same capacity as my LFPs :-)

Edited April 23, 20197 yr by plonkster

Hahah no I am not back. I just wanted your help with the surveys for the Expo and I know here are a lot of people with batteries all on one forum. I will be on my way again.

Gravitricity is starting with mine-shafts here in SA this year.

https://www.gravitricity.com/

 

32 minutes ago, TinkerBot said:

Gravitricity is starting with mine-shafts here in SA this year. 

Who remembers the old Al-Debbo story where some clown repeatedly popped in and asked the main characters if they wanted to buy a gold mine cheaply?

(No I am not that old... but I did see it!).

Finally... a good use for old mines 🙂

Edited April 23, 20197 yr by plonkster

3 hours ago, plonkster said:

He's baaack.... 🙂

I'm lost... 

Just now, Youda said:

I'm lost... 

You missed the great software wars some years ago... it is best to stay lost. I was an inch away from dumping this forum...

 

Well I filled in the survey, and I think the model is really cool and first prize should be yours.

But like @plonkster I don't think the storage density is very good compared with storing energy in chemical batteries.

OTOH, the idea is proven possible if you can move enough mass to a higher potential energy state:  For example in pump storage systems which can move many many tons of water up even 300 meters.

 

Thanks all who took part in the survey. If you want to know more about all the storage options here is a very nice research document that shows all the options.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karin_Kritzinger/publication/318562746_South_Africa_Energy_Storage_Technology_and_Market_Assessment/links/597086020f7e9b44173e035c/South-Africa-Energy-Storage-Technology-and-Market-Assessment.pdf

On 2019/04/23 at 2:00 PM, plonkster said:

You missed the great software wars some years ago... it is best to stay lost. I was an inch away from dumping this forum...

Plonkster I hope you now see who the real problem was. I moved on and I am doing my own thing but I was sooo taken for a ride. We all know who delevoped AICC. I still have the origanal Windows code base that the Pi software was based on. I also have all the core modules that is the base of ICC.

On 2019/09/07 at 1:34 PM, TinkerBot said:

I still have the origanal Windows code bas

I also still have a copy of the code that was "leaked". Truth be told... and not wanting to step on toes... but man, that was not worth a fight. That stuff should have been open source from day one.

But yeah... you know me. I love my open source, and I am opinionated as hell 🙂