LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A new solar panel technology using primarily gravity could be the future of mass energy storage and power.
According to an article by Victor Tangermann published on Futurism.com, "A pre-programmed crane on top of a massive tower lifts and stacks colossal bricks on top of each using excess power from wind and solar plants. When demand exceeds electricity production, the crane reverses the process, recouping energy by unstacking the tower of bricks...Just 20 cranes could provide enough power for 40,000 households over a 24 hour period, according to the WSJ."
Nicki Zvik, Founder of Green Solar Technologies, shares his excitement stating, "Solar technology is growing so rapidly that we're beginning to explore avenues we could have never imagined only a few years ago. Solar power itself is already an extraordinary discovery in that we have the main resource we need, the sun, given to us for free with each rising day. And now with the hope that gravity, easily harnessable source, could be used for energy storage, we may be on the brink of a new era in solar energy with higher efficiency and lower costs."
The article wraps up, "Lithium-ion batteries rely on rare-Earth metals, the extraction of which is steeped in environmental and humanitarian problems, and tend to lose their capacity over time...The concept is similar to "pumped hydro" systems, which use bodies of water instead of heavy bricks and a hill instead of a tower, and have been around for at least a century."
Zvik responds to the findings, mentioning, "It's funny how sometimes the seemingly most innovative technologies stem from past technologies that we thought we had developed to their full extent. Going back to solar energy for example, the sun has literally been around since the beginning of time, but relatively speaking, we just recently started using it as an energy source, and it's my belief that we've barely scratched the surface of the sun's potential. It will be amazing to witness the technologies we develop over the next few decades--developments that we haven't even dreamed up yet that will blow us away and completely change our world as we know it."
SOURCE Green Solar Technologies
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