Australian Start-Up Eyes Disused Mine Shafts For Giga-Scale Gravity Energy Storage
Thye title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renew Economy.
This is the first paragraph.
A newly launched Australian start-up has unveiled its own take on gravitational energy storage technology that will use super-heavy weights in legacy mine shafts to capture and release energy, with around 3GWh of potential storage capacity already identified for development.
Note.
- The company is called Green Gravity.
- I can’t find a web site.
The idea seems very much like Gravitricity.
- The energy stored seems about the same order of magnitude.
- In Disused Coal Mine Could Host Gravity Energy Storage Project, I describe how Gravitricity will be using coal mines to store energy.
Gravitricity’s ideas may be patented.
Hysata – Electrolyser Breaks Efficiency Records, Enabling World-Beating Green Hydrogen Cost
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Central.
These three paragraphs explain what Hysata have achieved.
Hysata – electrolyser breaks efficiency records, enabling world-beating green hydrogen cost.
Hysata’s world-leading hydrogen electrolyser technology has been recognised on the global stage with ground-breaking research published in top tier peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications.
The research confirms Hysata’s ‘capillary-fed electrolysis cell’ can produce green hydrogen from water at 98% cell energy efficiency, well above International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) 2050 target and significantly better than existing electrolyser technologies, enabling a hydrogen production cost well below A$2/kg (US$1.50/kg).
Note.
- Hysata are an Australian company.
- The research and its results have have met the gold standard of pier review in a respected journal.
Their efficiency levels would appear to be breathtaking.
I have some more information and a couple of thoughts.
The Technology
This article on New Atlas is entitled Record-Breaking Hydrogen Electrolyzer Claims 95% Efficiency, gives a full overview of the technology.
It does appear that Hysata have shown tremendous attention to detail to raise the efficiency.
The Efficiency
In Can The UK Have A Capacity To Create Five GW Of Green Hydrogen?, I said the following.
Ryze Hydrogen are building the Herne Bay electrolyser.
- It will consume 23 MW of solar and wind power.
- It will produce ten tonnes of hydrogen per day.
The electrolyser will consume 552 MWh to produce ten tonnes of hydrogen, so creating one tonne of hydrogen needs 55.2 MWh of electricity.
55.2 MWh/tonne is 55.2 kWh/kg.
Hysata are claiming on their web site, that their electrolysers have 95% efficiency, which is 41.5 kWh/kg.
- A megawatt of electricity at Herne Bay will produce 18.1 Kg of hydrogen.
- A megawatt of electricity in a Hysata electrolyser will produce 24.1 Kg of hydrogen.
That is 33 % more.
Conference Calls For More Freight Routes To And From Spain
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
Salvador Galve, Chairman of the Railway Commission of the General Council of Industrial Engineers, presented the European Alliance for the Development of Railway Corridors in the Iberian Peninsula initiative at a conference held in Madrid on March 9.
These are some points from the article.
- Less than 4% of freight is currently transported by rail in Spain, compared with an average of 18% across the EU.
- The Spanish government wants to raise this to 20%.
- Incidentally, in the UK, rail freight is at a level of 5 %.
- Italy has seven main lines connecting it to its neighbours, Spain has only two!
- Spain also has a break of gauge, whereas the UK and Italy do not!
- Plans exist for more freight corridors in Spain, and linking these to ports in North Africa and logistics hubs in the rest of Europe.
- Zaragoza, could be turned into a key southern European logistics hub, linked by tunnels to the main line between Toulouse and Bordeaux.
But to me the most interesting plan is set out in this paragraph.
On March 1 the Infrastructure Ministry gave its provisional approval for study into the feasibility of converting the single track, non-electrified line from Huesca to Canfranc from 1 668 mm gauge to 1 435 mm gauge, ahead of any possible reconstruction of the through route to Pau in France in the longer term.
It has always been on my bucket list to visit the magnificent Canfranc station.
The Anonymous Widower 