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China built a 40-story tower that stores wind power by stacking concrete (boingboing.net)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/technology@hexbear.net
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[–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I know people may not like Adamsomething but I saw his video about these a while ago where you can do the same thing with a hydroelectric dam. Maybe you can't implement those in some areas but using water instead makes a lot of sense

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Seems like water is more valuable than recycled concrete though.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Doesn't always have to be the same water, where this would have to be the same concrete

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    I'm not sure why it would be a problem that it's the same concrete though

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    I guess my thought is if you used water it could be hooked up to a larger reservoir and just pump from the water that's there. Whereas the concrete used would serve no other purpose outside of energy storage.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 month ago

    Yeah, if you have a reservoir to pump from that could make sense as well. I'm guessing different regions would prefer different approaches based on what's available. They do mention concrete is recycled, so it's not like new concrete needs to be produced either.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago*

    I saw Adamsomething's video, where he reconstructed the concept of a reservoir piece by piece without saying that was his intention, and I made notes:

    -iron is denser than water or concrete

    -one crane and one mass is simpler

    -if you put it in a brick tower there's no/less weathering

    -all of the above would make it low tech and could be built in urban areas instead of valleys for community storage

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