User:Jmesserly/idea- ocean ballast energy storage

Solution to grid energy storage problem:

Energy is spent either raising a dead weight from the ocean floor (19,000 feet off Hawaii), or by pulling a buoyant object down.

Battleship elevator: For example, one decomissioned battleship provides 500 552 megawatt hours of storage for times when winds have died, or sun is blocked by heavy clouds. Using a mothballed battleship such as the Wisconsin as a dead weight suspended from either a submerged or surface platform, The total energy to raise the weight would be 552 MegaWatt Hours. (1 joule to raise 1 pound .75 feet, so 1 KW Hour will raise 1350 tons 1 foot. A ton of steel weighs .87 tons under water. see converstion figures here]). The Ocean floor is 19,000 feet off of Hawaii***, and the weight of the Wisconsin is 45,000 tons***, so 19,000 * 45,000 / 1350 * .87 = 552 Megawatts hours.


 * Variation1: drag a buoyant object down.
 * Variation 1a: the motor to drag the object down is hydraulic driven. A pump onshore drives fluid in a closed circuit.  The side benefit is that the fluid is cold and can be used for cooling.


 * Variation2: rather than a floating platform to suspend the weight, the dead weight is run up and down the Oahu sea slope along tracks, or a suspension cable. A standard generator/ winch is onshore, and only structural elements are underwater.


 * Variation3: Rather than suspension in fluid (the ocean), the contraption is suspended in the air by massive dirigible.
 * Variation3a: Power generation might be on the massive dirigible (uninterupted solar, and high altitude wind.
 * Variation3b: Massive Barges the size of battleships would store 500 MWHours of power when raised above the weather (20K feet). These airborne barges double for global air transport.