'Wind bags' tested in energy plan
Wind bags designed to store energy which has been created by wind turbines are being tested by a Nottingham University professor.
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Comments
I presume the stored air (under pressure) will be used to respirate gas turbines? In other words turbocharge and improve greatly the efficiency of existing designs of self-respirating fossil fuelled gas turbines!
This must rate as one of the least energy efficient schemes ever suggested, an ideal accompaniment to the least energy efficient means of generating electricity ever devised, the wind turbine. The loss of energy in compressing air and pumping to the sea bed and then the energy loss as its allowed to escape through a turbine will be phenomenal. The highest pressure obtainable at the bottom of the North Sea is only about 10bar. This is nothing in terms of pressure and will produce negligible power.
Use the money to build a nuclear power station that will produce CONSTANT output.
It is unethical for this generation to consume electricity produced by nuclear power, the waste of which we expect future generations to live with. Hydrocarbon produced power is similarly unethical because future generations will have to live to the consequences, i.e. climate change. A mix of renewable power sources is the only ethical solution. Temporary energy storage to level out supply/demand surges is already available (e.g.hydro electric dams) and more will become available as investment and research is directed at the problem. I would rather have windfarms than smokestacks, but there are always people who are opposed top any sort of change.