Crazy Plan to Store Energy in the Ocean, Without Batteries!

the ocean vast beautiful powerful it's easy  to see why many researchers try to tap into   our planet's biggest powerhouse one group of  researchers are working on a way to take full   advantage of the ocean's seemingly endless  depths by harnessing the power of buoyancy   so how exactly does buoyancy work and  how could you use it to store energy   could this technology hold the key to helping  level out renewable energy generation like wind   and solar or is it yet another grid energy  pipe dream bound to sink to the depths   we thought these questions deserve  a deeper dive today on tuba davinci special thanks to air health for sponsoring the  show and this the sky what i'd call the tesla of   air purifiers more on this in just a little bit  let's go out on a nice relaxing sailing adventure   ah isn't that nice just a smooth relaxing ride  on top of the ocean but wait a minute why doesn't   our heavy boat sink straight down the answer is  buoyancy buoyancy is an upward force exerted by   a fluid on an object immersed in that fluid in  a gravity field because our boat is filled with   air it's less dense than the water it displaces  therefore it floats even though it's super heavy   in fluids pressure increases with depth creating  a net upward force called the buoyancy force which   fights against the gravity and is equivalent to  the weight of the fluid of the object displaced   so why does this happen imagine a virtual cylinder  rising up into space in space you have no pressure   but the closer to the surface you are the more air  molecules you have pressing down on you air and   water are both fluids so our virtual cylinder can  extend down into the ocean and the deeper you dive   the more water molecules you have above you  pushing down and so when anything is submerged in   water the pressure at the lowest point is higher  than at the highest point and that net difference   causes buoyancy it's this buoyancy force that  researcher julian hunt and a team of global   scientists have harnessed in their buoyant  energy storage technology or best but does   it really live up to this acronym you know what  really floats our boat hit that like button   buoyant energy storage builds off similar  principles as pumped hydropower storage but with a   few key differences traditional hydropower stores  potential energy in water contained in an upper   reservoir which is then released downward using  gravity to convert potential energy into kinetic   energy turning a turbine and creating electricity  bes technology stores potential energy but uses   buoyancy instead of an upper and lower reservoir  best has an outer reservoir any large body of   water a lake a tank or in the case of best the  ocean and a floating inner reservoir as the inner   reservoir submerges it stores potential energy how  does this work imagine you're in a swimming pool   in your hands you got a beach ball and you slowly  lower under the water because the ball is full   of air which is less dense in water it takes a  significant amount of energy to submerge the ball   holding the ball underwater would store  all that power as potential energy   as the buoyancy force builds this is essentially  how the bes technology works instead of beach   balls a large platform anchored to the ocean floor  connects to an enormous square 100 meters per side   made up of high density polyethylene pipes full  of compressed gas like air or hydrogen powerful   electric motors pull those buoyant tubes downwards  storing the potential energy in the buoyant mass   just like our beach ball so once the energy is  stored how do we get it out of the ocean and into   our smartphones by releasing the platform  the immense buoyancy pushes the platform   upward pulling the electric motor in reverse  turning a generator and sending all that power   back into the grid this technology comes with a  number of advantages over other energy storage   where best could have one major advantage  over pumped hydro is efficiency buoyancy   energy storage's architectural simplicity means  minimal energy loss during the energy production   and the constant pressure head allows the  pumps and turbines to operate at high levels   of efficiency at all given times buoyancy energy  could reach levels of between 85 and 95 efficient   compared to conventional pumped storage  systems which sit somewhere between 75   and 80 percent we've covered pumped hydro storage  in our video all about mechanical energy storage   which you can check out here best systems could  also pair with hydrogen storage and transportation   oh shoot but i might not have even known it wasn't  for our sponsor this week sky by air health why do   i call the tesla of air purifiers easy it's really  smart and i have it set up to alert me if the air   quality ever drops and automatically ramps up the  fans at slow speeds it's whisper quiet and on high   it can clear up to 1200 square feet and move an  impressive 420 cfm the sky has a five stage air   purification system one the pre-filter captures  larger particles two the peppa filter captures   99.97 percent of particles down to .3 microns  three the carbon filter removes odors in the air   four air health's patented pro-cell photocatalytic  oxidation layer helps to break down organic   compounds like harmful gases and chemicals and  lastly a powerful uvc light to reduce viruses   and bacteria in a third-party lab test against  the cova-19 virus sky reduced pathogens by 99.9   percent in less than 30 minutes start improving  your indoor air quality today with the air health   sky link and special 10 discount code in the  video description if you've seen our video on   the solid state hydrogen batteries you know one of  the major challenges in the hydrogen energy game   is compressing and transporting hydrogen best  systems already use the hydrogen in their platform   materials which gets compressed as it submerged  it could then be transported via large underwater   pipes a process that could reduce the cost of  hydrogen storage by a factor of 30 compared to   conventional compressors another untold benefit  of buoyancy energy storage is in safety for marine   wildlife while the buoyancy tubes do move compared  to other technologies like tidal turbines they are   vastly safer we should probably also remember  that the best technology requires no exotic   materials and isn't beholden to complex supply  chains you guys probably know how much i love   this because it allows us to reserve more of the  exotic materials like lithium and nickel for more   energy dense applications like cars and possibly  planes while the technology may not be as feasible   in every context not every part of the world  has access to deep reservoirs of water it has   major global potential around oceanic islands and  coastlines it could even be paired with offshore   wind turbines and ocean current power stations  so there are some pretty interesting benefits to   this technology but what about cost the cost  of grid storage for lithium-ion batteries is   around 150 dollars per kilowatt hour though those  prices are expected to drop in the coming years   best would be somewhere between 50 and 100 dollars  per kilowatt hour not bad but things aren't quite   that cut and dry while it's easy and economic  to store energy releasing that energy is much   more challenging remember that there are electric  motors and cables all of which are underwater due   to a host of challenges power output from  these systems comes at a much higher price   compared to other methods best systems  are a question of energy capacity versus   power capacity using water as an analogy energy  capacity is the size of the tank you have to fill   and the power capacity is the size of the hose  that you have to either fill or empty that tank   if you have a energy capacity of one kilowatt  hour in your system and a power capacity of one   kilowatt you could output one kilowatt of power  for one hour before you'd be out of energy best   systems are not a great solution if you need huge  amounts of power in short periods of time like in   a power outage or in england when a majority  of brits all turn on their electric kettles   after watching their favorite television program  all at the same time in this sort of situation   we'll need another answer but if you could instead  think about charging and discharging the system   over longer periods of time let's say weeks  not days hours or milliseconds then this thing   might just be an interesting breakthrough for  the future installation costs are also a factor   best has an installed power capacity from four  thousand to eight thousand dollars per kilowatt   for comparison a wind turbine comes in at  an installed power capacity of about sixteen   hundred dollars per kilowatt and lithium ion  batteries are still king coming in around 1 000   per kilowatt so in some instances best is not  always best best-known researchers recognize that   their systems would likely never replace batteries  altogether but could function in a system that   utilizes the strengths of both technologies  switching gears to talk about efficiency we   have to address the choices of compression gas the  following graph shows what happens to the density   of air and hydrogen as a function of depth in  meters hydrogen has a much lower density to start   that even at 6000 meters its density only  increases to 50 kilograms per meter cubed   compare this to air which increases to a density  of 528 kilograms per meter cubed at 6000 meters   this is why hydrogen is so important at 6000  meters water's density is 1028 kilograms per meter   cubed and when the change in density decreases so  does the force of buoyancy if these buoyancy tubes   aren't rigid members the increase in exterior  pressure will also cause a drop in volume again   reducing the energy storing capacity these are the  sorts of engineering challenges best researchers   have to optimize for based on these graphs showing  changes in density and volume researchers have   found that the best possible system works in  a range between three thousand meters and ten   thousand meters ten thousand meters about thirty  thousand feet there are not many places in the   ocean that deep but that would be the ideal use  case the proposed best system with hydrogen as a   compressed gas generating electricity from a depth  of ten thousand meters to three thousand meters   and an efficiency of about ninety percent  can store 7.9 gigawatt hours of electricity   the challenges are plenty to be sure motors  electrical equipment and salt water for example   there are also questions about the impact on  marine habitats system reliability and how   much maintenance would be required overall  using this technology in conjunction with   other production and storage technology could  create a much more flexible and versatile means   of leveling out grid energy but what do you think  is best really the best way to store energy for   the grid going forward can you think of any other  places buoyancy energy storage could be applied   sound off in the comments below alright so this  is another one of those really interesting quirky   approaches to energy storage it has its benefits  of course it doesn't need lithium or nickel or   cobalt or anything else but it's also really  challenging and complicated we're talking about   really really deep parts of our ocean the labor  and installation cost but as i mentioned you can   store a pretty good amount of energy just remember  that the energy storage is great but the power   density is very low so this would have to be one  of those more low level grid baseline production   methods but pretty cool stuff right thank you to  all of you for watching and if you want to be a   rock star supporter of the show consider joining  the two bit tribe our youtube channel members and   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Channel: Two Bit da Vinci

Views: 107,330

Keywords: energy storage, liquid air battery, green energy, energy storage systems, energy storage solutions, buoyancy battery, buoyancy energy storage, buoyancy energy, buoyancy energy storage technology, bouyancy battery, bouyancy energy storage, alternative energy storage, energy storage problem, energy storage market, green energy technology, renewable energy storage, water battery, ocean battery storage, ocean battery, ocean energy storage, two bit da vinci

Id: EoBPayAyCu0

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 04 2021