Pumping water uphill with electricity is not too lossy I don't think. Anyway if it can help you push your spring storage idea further, the energy stored in a spring is 0.5 times the force it exerts times its elongation (or compression), all in SI units.
Michel 2009/9/2, Nick Palmer <[email protected]>: > Harbach Jak wrote: > > <<So in that vane; Some Mother-earth-news types back in the 70's notice > that a simple and effective way to get water pumped up hill from a cased > well was simply to hoist a small piston air-compressor up a pole with > wind-fan blades fabricated on to the drive shaft and simply 'pressure-up' > the capped well casing. And with a skinny PVC pipe running down into the > water of the well acting as a straw the 25lbs of air-pressure or so would > pump a steady stream quite high as needed into an over head tank. It works > great and is almost absurdly 'low-tech.'>> > > Yup this is what I was getting at. I wanted to avoid converting the > wind/sun/waves/tide etc into electricity which is then stored in a battery > or used to pump water uphill etc. Direct conversion of renewable energy into > stored mechanical energy would cut out the "lossy" middlemen stages. > > Nick Palmer > > On the side of the Planet - and the people - because they're worth it
