Gravotage- Gravity Based Energy Storage Sysytem

With the increasing use of renewable energy technologies, more emphasize is put on energy storage. This is very important in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources and is directly related to reducing Green House Gas emissions. To ensure a smooth functioning of the electric grid, a bal

Project Title

Gravotage- Gravity Based Energy Storage Sysytem

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

With the increasing use of renewable energy technologies, more emphasize is put on energy storage. This is very important in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources and is directly related to reducing Green House Gas emissions. To ensure a smooth functioning of the electric grid, a balance has to be established between energy production and demand. Fluctuations between energy demand and supply can be harmful to the electric grid and to the overall consumer satisfaction. Therefore, flexible generation in combination with Energy Storage tends to be the optimal solution to ensure grid stability. Energy Storage is highly required to overcome the intermittent nature of Renewable Energy sources. A number of Energy Storage technologies have been developed to store the excess energy, by converting electric energy to chemical, thermal, electrochemical, mechanical, or Gravitational Energy. Energy Storage domain requires more exploration. It is vital to understand the most recent innovative Energy Storage systems that are currently under research and development.

Gravity Storage is a new concept for storing power on a multi-GWh scale.  We believe that Gravity Storage will be a game-changing solution for the world´s energy supply, as photovoltaic (PV) and wind power become the cheapest source of electricity and the demand for power continues to increase rapidly. One of the well-known solutions is to store the energy and convert it into a more stable form, to transform again into electricity during periods of high demand. This process provides economic viability for most energy-storage projects, even for the least efficient and most common, such as batteries. Therefore, this report aims to propose a storage system that operates with gravitational potential energy, considering a  small-scale use.

Project Objectives

The core objective of this project is to design a prototype of Gravity based energy storage system which can store electrical energy converting it into potential energy and regenerate electrical energy when in demand through gravity. Other objectives will be:

•  To enable the increasing use of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. 

• To get a working system which have a maximum life spam so that the energy which is stored can be used in the time of crisis.

• To make this system more efficient than any other energy storage system.

Project Implementation Method

• Gravotage is a gravity based energy storage system which stores electricity in the form of potential energy.

• A DC motor is used for the operation.

• Motor driver will be used to control the motor rpm

• A weight will be hanged through the pulley to the DC motor shaft. 

•AC supply will be given to the DC motor using rectifier which lifts the weight up as the shaft rotates.

• Once the weight reaches its upper limit, the limit switch will trigger and send the signal through arduino to turn the motor off and locking mechanism will be triggered at the same time and weight will be locked in that position.

• Hence, the electricity is stored in the form of potential energy.

• When we need the stored energy back, simply with the supply being cut off from the motor we drop the weight by unlocking the pulley by locking mechanism and with the help of gravity the weight drops drown.

•  As the weight reaches its lower limit, the limit switch will trigger and send the signal to locking mechanism and lock it before it touches ground and save it from damage.

In other case, if we want the continous motion, the lower limit switch can also send signal to the driver which turns the motor on and the weight will again be lifted to store electrical energy in potential form.

• As the weight drops, due to gravity now the motor runs in reverse motion and current starts to flow in reverse direction and the stored energy is drawn back.

•The produced electrical energy can be used on both AC (by converting DC into AC) and DC loads.

• The energy stored, electrical energy regenerated, rpm of the dc motor and other parameters will be displayed and can be monitored on LCD.

Benefits of the Project

• Gravity Storage makes possible the reliable 24-hours supply of renewable power at steady and reasonable costs.

• Gravity Storage plants can be built using proven technologies from mining and tunnel construction,and can be expected to have a service life of 60 years or more, where normal lead ion batteries used with solar panels have 15 years maximum life.

• High round-trip energy efficiency of 85% or more, which is quite more than most of the energy storage systems.

• Low operational costs of less than 1% of capex per year.

• It can be easily integrated into any high voltage transmission grid.

• No harmful chemicals required to operate as it is designed to couple with renewable energy sources.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The goal of Gravotage is to enable the increasing use of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels, and to be coupled with renewable energy sources but since it is a prototype and first step for exploring its need in market, we are going with using AC supply to run this project, where a option of integration of solar panels to power the DC motor is still available. Still it will be able to run with same efficiency and dilever the best results and stand out among other energy storing systems. 

Arduino will be used to interface motor driver, relays, LCD, limit switches, locking mechanism and other.

The energy stored at the time of lifting the weight and the energy regenerated by dropping the weight all will be displayed on the LCD where other parameters will also be able to seen on LCD.

Motor's rpm, on/ off controlling will be done through motor driver.

It will be able to store the electrical energy in the form of potential energy and when needed it can produce electrical energy again.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Others

Core Technology

Clean Tech

Other Technologies

Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com