Ocean Battery – huge offshore battery works with a rubber bubble on the ocean floor

Storage system
Ocean Battery – huge offshore battery works with a rubber bubble on the ocean floor

Storage like a dam only on the ocean floor.

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A dam on the ocean floor – that is the idea behind the Ocean Battery. It stores the water in a bubble at the bottom of the sea.

The production of ecological electricity without CO2 emissions is actually technically solved. Solar energy, wind and water power and other natural energy sources are sufficient to satisfy our hunger for energy. Future improvements will only make green electricity cheaper and more efficient in the future. The situation is different when it comes to the question of how this electricity can be transported and “stored”.

Battery technology is making progress, but completely different solutions are being pursued when storage requirements are high. Including storage in the form of liquid air or the installation of large towers made of concrete blocks. A new type of system for use in offshore wind farms or wave power plants has now been presented in Holland. Ocean Battery relocates the basic idea of ​​a power plant with a reservoir to the sea floor. It consists of three components that work together on a similar principle as a dam.

Normal pressure tank

There is a concrete tank under the ocean floor, each holding around 20 million liters of water. This tank is pressure-stable, like the cell of a submarine, so that the water can be stored there at low pressure. A system of pipes and turbines connects the tank to a kind of plastic bubble on the sea floor. Excess electricity is now used to pump the water from the tank into the bladder. If electricity is required, the water is allowed to flow away again, and turbines are then driven by the water.

So far so predictable. But Ocean Battery can use far more energy than the difference in altitude between the bladder and tank shows. A dam could use this energy. The pressure differences between the sea floor and the low pressure basin increase the energy so that the relatively small bubble can store a great deal of energy. Energy is lost through the pumps and turbines, but the Ocean Battery should still achieve an efficiency of 70 to 80 percent. The system is designed for a service life of 20 years. Each concrete storage tank has a capacity of 10 MWh. A system can be easily scaled by building additional modules.

Existing technology

Conceptually, the Ocean Battery has several advantages on its side. The system does not require any space in built-up areas. No rare earths or scarce raw materials are required to build the storage facility. The building blocks consist of existing and proven technology. The storage medium is water, which is neither used nor polluted.

Various concepts want to use the high pressure in the depths. One model is to pull steel balloons on ropes under the water. When electricity is required, they pull the ropes back to the surface and thus drive generators. The idea that is best able to withstand the destructive effects of the sea for a long time will probably prevail.

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