Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you be able to help me figure out the gravitational potential energy of the red hill tanks? https://www.epa.gov/red-hill/what-red-hill-bulk-fuel-storage... They were recently decommissioned due to leaks, but I've often wondered if they could be repurposed as gravity battery storage. edit: if you want to check my math. I calculated the tanks at ~567 million liters, and am saying there is 120 meters of vertical d…
I think a bit more than that, the article says 250 million gallons which is more like 960 million litres. That squares with the dimensions given: 15m x 15m x pi x 75m x 20 tanks = 1 million cubic metres = 1 billion litres. Oahu uses about 225MW on average in residential electricity [0], so this could store an hour or so of excess capacity. That's not nothing, but you might want to 5x or 10x it to really smooth out de…
>Oahu uses about 225MW on average in residential electricity [0], so this could store an hour or so of excess capacity. That's not nothing, but you might want to 5x or 10x it to really smooth out demand and supply peaks for the island.
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/top-stories/2022/08/...
This solar plant & battery system was completed last month. The battery is able to store 144 MWh. This shows me that planners and people thinking about this are willing to invest & commit to power solutions at this scale. I don't know if you are aware or have read up on the red hill controversy. These tanks were used to store fuel by the Navy. They leaked earlier this year and poisoned the Red Hill aquifer and have caused quite a bit of local controversy.
I'm struggling with the idea of writing a letter to the editor outlining this concept, but also emphasizing how converting these tanks to a water storage/ energy storage facility would improve local resilience to drought, bring down water costs, improve environmental conditions etc.