Batteries take up much less space for the same power footprint. Next year, my power company is installing a 200 MWh BESS on 10 acres. No way this fits into those sorts of constraints.
> capex is significantly lower
Doubtful. Steel lines and motors are cheap but not that cheap. There's also a higher ongoing maintenance cost as those things need regular monitoring/greasing/cleaning. There's also the need for more security, giant heavy blocks sliding down a hill is pretty dangerous, you'll want enough security to keep someone from hopping the fence to ride a block down/up the hill.
> you can probably build it a hell of a lot faster than a reservoir.
Faster than a reservoir, much slower than a battery farm.
> likely last significantly longer than a lithium ion chemistry battery farm.
With regular maintenance, yes. But that's also true of a battery farm. With regular maintenance, the battery farm will last forever. The expensive part of the battery farm is the initial installation. After that, it's very cheap to incrementally replace modules as they start to fail (which is around 10 to 15 years).
Batteries take up much less space for the same power footprint. Next year, my power company is installing a 200 MWh BESS on 10 acres. No way this fits into those sorts of constraints.
> capex is significantly lower
Doubtful. Steel lines and motors are cheap but not that cheap. There's also a higher ongoing maintenance cost as those things need regular monitoring/greasing/cleaning. There's also the need for more security, giant heavy blocks sliding down a hill is pretty dangerous, you'll want enough security to keep someone from hopping the fence to ride a block down/up the hill.
> you can probably build it a hell of a lot faster than a reservoir.
Faster than a reservoir, much slower than a battery farm.
> likely last significantly longer than a lithium ion chemistry battery farm.
With regular maintenance, yes. But that's also true of a battery farm. With regular maintenance, the battery farm will last forever. The expensive part of the battery farm is the initial installation. After that, it's very cheap to incrementally replace modules as they start to fail (which is around 10 to 15 years).