I was thinking that lead is very heavy, about 11 & ½ times heavier than water of the same volume. A ten kilogramme bucket of water would weigh over 100 kg if it was replaced by same volume of Lead.
I thought that a small block of Lead could be used to store a large amount of kinetic energy if there was a surplus renewable energy generated for times when the output is low.
This is how it works...
A small Lead block is attached to a cable, the cable is looped around a spool that is attached to a gear cog. When a latch is released, the lead block pulls the gear cog and turns it, this transmittes rotation to a smaller cog, the smaller cog spins 5 times for every one rotation. That cog is connected to a bigger cog that in turn spins a smaller cog that is 5 times smaller. By the time the rotation has reached the last cog it is spinning very fast and turns a dynamo. When the cable is fully unfurled, the transmission stops. Later a small electric motor turns the cog wheels in the opposite direction and lifts the lead block back up.
Each cog in the transmission chain gets 5 times faster but also has less force turning it. The first cog takes one minute to rotate but the 7th cog spins 15,625 times. When the system runs in reverse, the opposite happens, the electronic motor's turning force is amplified but it loses speed so the first cog is turning very slowly and takes a few hours to lift the lead block back up. The electronic motor resets the system during the day when surplus solar power is produced.
I thought there could be thousands of these kinetic storage devices in a tower block that is especially built for that task.
It feels very strange to draw my thoughts and write about them.
