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'No-water' hydropower turns England's hills into green and pleasant batteries (www.rechargenews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] echo64@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not gonna jump on board with this one immediately, there's a few things about it that aren't wowwing me.

R-19 is their magical 'denser than water' fluid. They don't have to be so secretive and if they are going to be secretive then I'm gonna assume it's not good for us.
it's only really so that you can get the same amount of power from half the height. they aren't selling it as "store twice as much energy", but rather "use in locations that have half as much height". The thing is that the UK has used this kind of power for decades, there are old coal mines and natural cave formations that have large water flows. the water is pumped to the top when you have an excess, and dropped to power during demand. This system seems far better in general, even without the mysterious R-19 fluid. We don't /not/ have height differences in the UK, we have lots.

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's Intellectual Property. Investors like IP so it can be licensed for royalties and bumps up the balance sheet. From their website

"RheEnergise said it invented the new high-density fluid, known as R-19. Chief executive Stephen Crosher told Professional Engineering that the liquid is a fine-milled suspended solid in water, with low viscosity and low abrasion characteristics. The base material is used in oral medication applications, in a similar way that chalk is used as a bulking agent for pills and tablets. He said the raw materials are common and available, including in the UK, and the fluid could either be manufactured on-site or at a depot. "

Hydro is very geographically restricted, halving the height makes it less so.

I like the idea of using old coal mines, there's been pilot projects in Germany and Australia but I've never seen them amount to anything

[–] roguetrick@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The base material is used in oral medication applications

Calcium carbonate. The density for a calcium carbonate suspension in water is right on the money for what they've stated. They're being so evasive because they haven't patened it and likely can't. They're treating it like a trade secret because they can't make it into IP.

Edit: yep, they use it in oil drilling, so they can't patent it https://glossary.slb.com/en/terms/c/calcium_carbonate