http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/ Engadget Comments for Excess wind energy to be stored underground for future use http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
Now an *unconventional* battery system like this, or http://www.fhc.co.uk/dinorwig.htm is ideal.

BTW I've been to Dinorwig and it rocks. Quite literally. US owned as well I seem to remember. ]]>Oct 5th 2007 10:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 10:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
Well there is certainly a shortage of wind on days that aren't windy. So for those days you need to you can break the wind out.

It's kind of like a mountain sized bean burrito with broccoli for a sharing caring earth *smiles brightly*]]>Oct 6th 2007 2:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 9th 2007 1:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 6th 2007 8:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
in any case, it seems like an interesting concept. hopefully there's a failsafe that keeps it from exploding if something goes wrong.]]>Oct 5th 2007 9:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
http://www.fhc.co.uk/dinorwig.htm
]]>Oct 5th 2007 9:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 9:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Seeing as energy cannot be created nor destroyed, my bets are that you don't know how batteries work either.]]>Oct 5th 2007 9:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
That statement is not entirely false, although Scott may not realize it.
Batteries are not a closed system and therefore, energy can enter and exit that particular system. Chemical reactions place (charge; bond) and displace (discharge; unbond) the energy. The state of the energy changes.

No offense ScotteusMaximus, but I don't know your intentions.
]]>Oct 5th 2007 10:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity]]>Oct 7th 2007 7:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2001/norton.htm
]]>Oct 5th 2007 10:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.fhc.co.uk/dinorwig.htm and watch us pump water uphill whilst day after day whilst you lot blow a lot of hot air.]]>Oct 5th 2007 10:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 5th 2007 10:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
I'm not an energy expert, but I have had some dealings with the industry for my work.]]>Oct 5th 2007 11:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
See more here: http://www.tva.gov/sites/pdf/raccoonmtn.pdf]]>Oct 5th 2007 11:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/geez, i word my sentence a little awkwardly and suddenly everybody's repeating the one thing they remember from high school chemistry. my bets are that i know more about the chemical reactions behind batteries than you, but i'm not going to get into an online pissing match because my point wasn't to pick apart the OP's comment like you seem to enjoy doing. i was just providing some context on why they're using the energy to compress the air rather than simply "fill" batteries.

@ Fafnir Lux:
i think you understood what i was getting at with my first comment. i guess what i should have said to avoid all the armchair scientists was that "batteries aren't actually filled with electricity, they're filled with chemicals that react to convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy that can be used to power all our cool gizmos."]]>Oct 5th 2007 11:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
I'm not quite understanding what you mean. In my state, we have coal burning power plants. If we had a plant like this in and it produced "x" amount of power and was constant, then you could cut back on the amount of coal be burned to produce the power, plus for the cost of the plant I would be using it as much as I could, not just during peak hours. ]]>Oct 5th 2007 11:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 6th 2007 12:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/ But my point is, isn't there less expensive solutions to store the potential energy?

I don't know about relative costs, but I don't think anyone's mentioned flywheels yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_energy_storage

I'll let someone else do the math...]]>Oct 6th 2007 5:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 7th 2007 7:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
This process costs a lot of energy, so only half of the saved energy can be restored.]]>Oct 6th 2007 3:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
@groundwater
they are way below the groundwater table

@earthquakes
salt caverns exist mainly in the midwest, not a whole lot of earthquakes (which was once a giant ocean if you know your geology, and yes, you can find sharks teeth in the shale layers in kansas)

There have been a few accidents. In Hutchison, KS, water breached a salt cavern causing it to decompress and release gas through the soil into a town. It caused many houses to explode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_explosion

]]>Oct 6th 2007 4:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 6th 2007 9:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 6th 2007 6:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/Oct 6th 2007 7:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/

'splain yourself boy. What facts, figures, and so forth do you have to support your great words of wisdom? At least they are trying something.

]]>Oct 7th 2007 12:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
There's another interesting company developing a CAES/Wind system that skips the wind-to-electricity step altogether, connecting the wind tower's drive shaft directly to compressors, and only generating electricity at the decompression step. That's less efficient, of course, when the wind happens to be blowing when you want to sell your power. But the capital costs are potentially much lower.

http://www.generalcompression.com/]]>Oct 7th 2007 7:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/05/excess-wind-energy-to-be-stored-underground-for-future-use/
Dude, look at the picture. The power station, power lines, etc., are floating in the sky. ]]>Oct 10th 2007 5:31PM