Estimates suggest abandoned mine shafts could store enough electricity to power the planet

An abandoned mine in Finland is set to be transformed into a giant battery to store renewable energy during periods of excess production.

The Pyhäsalmi Mine, roughly 450 kilometres north of Helsinki, is Europe’s deepest zinc and copper mine and holds the potential to store up to 2 MW of energy within its 1,400-metre-deep shafts.

The disused mine will be fitted with a gravity battery, which uses excess energy from renewable sources like solar and wind in order to lift a heavy weight. During periods of low production, the weight is released and used to power a turbine as it drops.

  • dkt@lemmy.ml
    9·
    10 months ago

    Or just joules per second for power. Eliminate watts entirely. Dumbass unit

    • pcouy@lemmy.pierre-couy.fr
      13·
      10 months ago

      Well, Watts are just a different way to write Joules per second. The unit we should eliminate is {k,M}W.h which introduce a 3.6 factor in conversions to/from the regular unit system

      • tunetardis@lemmy.ca
        7·
        10 months ago

        My fave has gotta be kwh/yr/ft². I came across that while researching the lighting requirements for hydroponics.

        • pcouy@lemmy.pierre-couy.fr
          1·
          10 months ago

          Well, it kind of makes sense to give a figure in such an unit. It allows you to quickly calculate how much you’re gonna spend on your electric bill (but only if you’re based in the US), since all weird conversions are already done

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
        3·
        10 months ago

        These cursed time units remind me of the super messy imperial units. Unfortunately, the French revolution wasn’t able to fix that, but it did fix a whole lot of other nonsense.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          10 months ago

          What’s even worse is that some units differ between the US and UK, such as a cup. So you can’t even assume the wacky units are even consistent within themselves, you need to know which country you’re talking about.

          • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
            2·
            10 months ago

            You know, there’s a reason why NASA and the US military use metric units. You just can’t afford to screw these things up because the units are a bit wonky.

      • dkt@lemmy.ml
        2·
        10 months ago

        Yeah but if we all wrote “joules per second” instead of watts we’d encourage everyone to measure energy in joules instead of watt-hours. It’s like speed, we don’t need an entirely separate unit that just means m/s

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          10 months ago

          It’s especially confusing when trying to size a surge protector. The surge protector uses joules, whereas most devices use watts, and you generally need more protection the more power your devices pull.