Gravitational energy theory holds we can store and release energy by raising and lowering solid masses. A ride on a roller coaster certainly attests to the fact that this principle exists. Scientists at Nottingham University have obtained a patent for a working example using steel drums they filled with soil. Their work is part of an ongoing brief to research and develop sustainable energy systems.
A Brief Introduction to Gravitational Energy Research
Scientific curiosity grew after 2013, when the California Independent System Operator experimented with hopper cars in mines. Since then, more experiments have followed using rails and cranes to move concrete weights up and down.
Solar powered machinery enables the technology to potentially enter the green energy economy. That’s because the recovery rate can be as high as 85% making this a commercially feasible method. A typical application drives an electrical generator pulley with a cable. Then the weight pulls the cable as it succumbs to gravity, thereby rotating the pulley and creating electricity.
See Doodle Science Explain the Basics
An Elegant Proposal by Profs Saffa Riffat and Yijun Yuan
Saffa Riffat is a European Academy of Sciences fellow, while Prof Yijun Yuan is a fellow of Marie Curie research institute First, the team and their assistants dug a trench up a slope and lined it with concrete. Next, they built a central support structure using some of the soil as filler, according to Engineering News.
Finally, they fitted concrete drums with axial shafts and bearings before filling them with the rest of the earth they dug out. After they pulled the drums up the slope with cables using renewable solar power they had stored gravitational energy. When they lowered the drums down the slope, the gravitational pull converted to kinetic force.
They could then use this force to generate electricity and potentially feed it into the grid. Profs Saffa Riffat and Yijun Yuan envisage large-scale operations delivering affordable, zero-emission green energy.
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Preview Image: Roller Coaster for the Brave Who Dare
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