Gravity battery calculator

Gravity batteries  store electricity in the form of potential energy - in other words a heavy enough material (water, concrete) is lifted up to a certain height and then released. The advantage is that these batteries are up to 75% effective. 

Currently gravity batteries are only significant parts of an energy system for accumulation of energy  in pumped storage hydroelectric power plants. There the electricity is generated when there are two bodies of water, reservoirs or dams, which have a difference in elevation. 

The largest gravity battery is in China - 40 610 000 mwith an elevation of 425 m.  

 

Calculator - how much energy can a gravity battery hold? 

Stored energy is calculated using the following formula   Ep = m • h • g

 


Gravity batteries using cranes and concrete blocks 

Gravity batteries look like cranes with multiple arms where each arm lifts a 35 tonne heavy block 100m,generating around 10kWh of potential energy. 

Pumped storage hydroelectric power plant example

Dlouhé Stráně is a the most well-known pumped storage hydroelectric power plant in the Czech Republic that uses a gravity battery to store electric energy. The upper reservoir holds 2 580 000m³ of water and the power plant has an elevation of 210.7 m. The efficiency of this pumped storage system cycle reaches a record 76.5%.  

Gravity battery news 

Gravity battery questions and answers

  • Are gravity batteries the future?

    Gravity batteries counteract a lot of the issue of other renewable energy sources such as the Sun not always shining or needing rare materials. The problem is that they are very large as the towers must be around 100 metres tall while they generate the same amount of power as a wind turbine of that height.

  • Where do we already use gravity batteries?

    Pumped storage hydroelectric power plants already use the concept of gravity batteries as they use water as their heavy material.


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