[HN Gopher] New England's Largest Battery Is Hidden Inside a Mas...
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       New England's Largest Battery Is Hidden Inside a Mass. Mountain
       (2016)
        
       Author : johnobrien1010
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2022-05-25 21:15 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.wbur.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.wbur.org)
        
       | juice_bus wrote:
       | Tom Scott also did a great video[0] on this
       | 
       | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jx_bJgIFhI
        
       | rektide wrote:
       | $10m project. What one would expect, pumped hydro:
       | 
       | > _Northfield Mountain is a naturalist 's wonderland. But if you
       | look around, you'll see an unnatural site: a 5-billion-gallon
       | battery._
       | 
       | Energy capacity: 5b gallons * 8.35lbs/gallon * kWh/2,655,220ft-lb
       | (pounds raised 1 ft) = 15.6MWh per foot raised or lowered. At
       | $10m, that's a ridiculous amount of capacity.
        
         | elihu wrote:
         | $10m is a new state initiative. This pumped hydro facility was
         | built 45 years ago, so not related to the new initiative.
        
       | aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
       | Spoiler: it's a pumped hydroelectric storage.
        
       | tshaddox wrote:
       | Pumped-storage hydro is cool. I first became aware of it in 2005
       | when the catastrophic failure of this one in Missouri made local
       | news:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taum_Sauk_Hydroelectric_Power_...
       | 
       | A section of the upper reservoir's dam wall was overtopped, the
       | pumps continued to run, and the section failed, releasing a
       | billion gallons of water in 12 minutes. The flow washed away the
       | forest and soil down to the bedrock. One home was destroyed and
       | its occupants injured, though thankfully there were no deaths.
       | 
       | The failure had several causes, but the most infamous one is that
       | the failsafe gauge had been moved above the top of the dam wall
       | to avoid false positives.
       | 
       | The reservoir was repaired and as far as I know continues to
       | operate. I backpacked in the area several times and the dam wall
       | has a striking appearance on the horizon.
        
       | ge96 wrote:
       | I wonder... What if you used a transparent container that
       | utilized the sun to add pressure during the day while it's being
       | used then pump it at night(cooler). Worth the effort for
       | noticeable gain or no?
        
         | macondo wrote:
        
       | 908B64B197 wrote:
       | > Since the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant shut down two years ago,
       | Northfield has been buying its off-peak operating power straight
       | off the grid. But as more solar and wind comes online, Bakas
       | believes the pumped storage generating station could one day run
       | as a totally climate-friendly supplier of electricity.
       | 
       | > "I think the goal of our facility would be to look at the
       | opportunities to purchase purely green, renewable power and be
       | able to supply green power to the grid," he says.
       | 
       | So right now it's fueled by... gas and coal.
       | 
       | They could just buy clean, green energy from up north (if
       | lobbyists hadn't killed the project). [0]
       | 
       | [0] https://apnews.com/article/election-2021-maine-hydropower-
       | li...
        
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       (page generated 2022-05-25 23:00 UTC)