"High density" hydro power goes live in Devon (TW)

The almost fact-free article doesn’t say how the ’specially formulated, low-viscosity, denser-than-water fluid’ gets up the hill in the first place, or what happens to it afterwards.

A pump, and a tank (presumably).

My guess is it's something like barium sulphate drilling mud, density=4.48 g/cm3.

Theo

Wait until the environmentalists find out that the low-viscosity, denser-than-water fluid is the same as fracking mud :)

It would be interesting to see if suspended particulate minerals in a fluid would act as in the same way as sand blasting the turbine blades.

The website says 2.5

Its just a pumped storage thing using something heavier than water

I took the lack of references to how the tank was filled up as an indication that it wasn’t seen as desirable for the ’green’ image of the project to reveal there was actually a significant energy cost to filling the tank in the first place.

If anyone had a really good clean green idea, they would keep it to themselves. And make money.

Lets face it, if yoiu know the right horse to back, why tell anyone. Just back it and keep the odds high.

If you have a great stock market investment STFU or other buyers will drive the price up...

...if you are such an investment gurus *why did you write a book about it?*.

People who publish hot tips on horses or stocks want you to buy to force the price up or the odds down

I've got a great idea to increase Dinorwig's capacity by over 13x ...

No, but Jethro did in his post and the info is all on the site. It's an energy storage thing, like pumped hydro.

TW

Jethro’s post gave a link.

The press release doesn’t mention the pump aspect at all.

It certainly isn’t leaping out as a factor, as in ’This system can power

All pump storage has filling costs. Any energy storage that can help grid stability has got to be a good thing surely?

Tim

Maybe something listed on this wikipage?

Nor something terribly expensive.

For the consumer the cheapest solution should be favoured. Many of these schemes are only viable if its generating electricity for a short period when the grid is purchasing at a high price.

The problem is the magnitude of the storage required if the current trend of building more solar and wind continues especially in winter when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow for a week or more.

Quite. Roll out the modular nuclear reactors, with all that energy stored in them, and let’s bring an end to this ’grid stability’ issue caused by the cheap renewables we’ve been promised for the last 20 years but have yet to see.

OK down to -38 C? ;-)

Can't beat a lake of hydrargyrum.

Chris

At any price?

When I went riund IIRC the Ffestiniog station, they explained that it was a question of whether it was cheaper to build pumped storage or another nuclear power station.

(Grid stability comes with spinning mass be it water gas or steam turbines)

And add heat banks of molten salt if necessary to give then a bit more fast acting peak power,

It sounds like you’re criticising it for not being an orange when it is actually an apple. Pump storage is about producing power quickly to aid grid balancing. Yes, we still need a lot of storage to make up for the intermittency of renewables but that’s a completely different fruit so to speak.

Tim

That’s certainly “an answer” and not one I have anything against. Will it happen before I’m dead though? I’m doubtful. I think you’re a bit over-fixated on renewables being “cheap” though. Wasn’t their prime purpose to lower our carbon footprint?

Tim