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The Future of Wind Power May Be Underground
Hugh Pickens writes "When the wind is blowing, it is usually the cheapest peaking power available. However utilities need consistent always-on power from large, cheap coal and nuclear power plants that are the backbone of the electric grid. Wired reports that operators are looking at Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) using abandoned mines and sandstones of the Midwest to store compressed-air. This converts the intermittent motions of the air into a steady power source by using it to run air compressors to pump air into an underground cave where it's stored under pressure. The first CAES plant in the United States actually went online in McIntosh, Alabama in 1991 where engineers created a geological pocket 900 feet long and up to 238 feet wide in a dome by pumping water into it to dissolve the rock salt. When the (briny) water was pumped back out, the salt resealed itself and they had an air-tight container."
actually went online in McIntosh
...Apple had something to do with this!
We could use those stones to build houses for the poor. So, ... Six stones?
Yes, but eventually, you want to store more air than the free stuff can store, so you want to use the bags. The bags are useful for off-shore wind farms.
Ha! wind bags. I knew they had to be good for something.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Any birds unlucky enough to get sucked in will suffocate. 4 birds, 1 stone!
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38.1 Kg?
African or European?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It could grip it by the husk!
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black