Hope: Closed down mine turned into hydroelectric battery

Zoombie · Dec 18, 2016

Some look at an abandoned, centuries-old iron mine in New York's Adirondacks and see a relic.

An ambitious group of engineers sees the shafts in Mineville as a new way to provide a steady flow of electricity in a growing market for renewable energy.
They are pitching a plan to circulate some of the millions of gallons of groundwater that have flooded the mine shafts over the years to power an array of 100 hydroelectric turbines a half-mile underground.
They envision the operation as a solution for solar and wind power producers, who need ways to ensure an uninterrupted flow of energy when the sun isn't shining and winds are still.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-hydroelectric-potential-centuries-old.html#jCp

The practical issue facing renewable resources - solar and wind power for instance - is the storage problem. What do you do when the sun aint shining? For this town, the idea is to use the power to pump water into the upper part of the mine. Then, when the power is needed again, let the water flow through turbines into the bottom part of the mine - thus generating power.

Then, when solar and wind comes back online, pump the water back up!

All of it in a former mine. There's something marvelous about that.

Roxxsmom · Dec 18, 2016

That's really a cool idea.

jennontheisland · Dec 18, 2016

This will be how we survive.

Next up: mining the plastic islands floating in the ocean so we can reuse the polymers...

cmhbob · Dec 18, 2016

Fascinating. And you wouldn't have to worry as much about dealing with water seeping in, because that would just add to your bank.

Zoombie · Dec 20, 2016

So, my question: If this works, how many closed down mines are there in the rust belt that could be turned into hydroelectric batteries?

Heck, how many out of work coal miners are there who could help construct these mines? They got the expertise and the guts to go into these places - it wouldn't need immense amount of retraining.

I think this has a lot of promise.

Hope: Closed down mine turned into hydroelectric battery

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

cmhbob

Did...did I do that?

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse