"In late November, in a quiet corner of Devon, England, workers began adding a secret, light brown powder to water as they mixed up a special fluid that can store energy. They blended it with the utmost care, like some kind of giant protein shake, over the course of multiple weeks. Their goal was to achieve a mixture 2.5 times denser than water."
"That's because, in the company's demonstration system, at a china clay mine near the city of Plymouth, this mystery liquid can now slosh down angled pipes connecting an upper container to a lower container 80 meters below. In the process, the fluid drives turbines to create electricity. Pumping the mixture back up at times when there's excess energy on the grid resets the whole system. It's a new take on an old energy-storage technology currently experiencing a renaissance: pumped hydro."
Pumped hydro has existed since the late 19th century and saw widespread construction through the 20th century before slowing in the 1990s. Modern grids value pumped hydro for fast-response balancing of highly variable wind and solar output, absorbing surplus generation and supplying power during shortfalls. Firms are developing novel approaches such as dense mineral-based fluids that flow between upper and lower reservoirs to drive turbines, enabling energy storage in locations without traditional high reservoirs. Demonstration systems use pumped mixtures roughly 2.5 times the density of water, pumped down and back up to create and store electricity. Automation and modular designs aim to scale these systems for broader renewable integration.
Read at WIRED
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