March 25, 2012 source: GigaOM Earth2Tech
Update: March 27, 2012 – see GigaOM’s followup article: The story of Energy Cache, a drop-dead simple energy idea by Katie Fehrenbacher from an extensive interview with the founder and President of Energy Cache, Aaron Fyke, giving the details of how the technology works, how the company came into being, where it’s headed and how Bill Gates and Bill Gross became involved.
Energy Cache, one of Claremont Creek Ventures’ portfolio companies, was featured in GigaOM’s Earth2Tech blog this past Sunday. Energy Cache, an Idealab company, develops low-cost energy storage through a series of gravel lift arrays. The system stores energy by moving gravel uphill, and then releasing the rocks to produce energy. Check out the video below to see Energy Cache’s prototype installation in action:
Energy Cache’s innovative thinking has great potential for improving the economics of energy since these systems are highly responsive to fluctuating and peak energy needs. These local energy storage solutions can be especially helpful in the developing world where many remote communities are often disconnected from the energy grid.
We at Claremont Creek Ventures can’t wait to see what the future of Energy Cache’s technology has in store!
I should think the friction losses with gravel would greatly exceed those of the venerable pumped-storage systems of the 50’s and 60’s. It would be interesting to see some overall efficiency comparisons with other potential-energy schemes.