, an alternative technology which is also funded by the crowd around Bill Gates, you have to filter a Houston Astrodome’s worth of air to get a ton of CO2.
And now there is Energy Vault, making Gross’ contribution to climate solutions a trifecta of challenges. At their remarkable claims of 360 days working per year, one cycle per day, and 35-40 years of work, that would be 14,400 lifts. That brings the carbon debt delivered down to only 1.8 kg per kWh, which is to say about 80% worse than burning coal and about 170 times worse than wind energy.
Instead of cranes, they are using elevators, which is to say cranes inside the building, but protected from wind and rain. Assuming 20% of the carbon debt per block, because there’s only so much you can do to make something that behaves like reinforced concrete, and the same remarkable 40-year life time and equally remarkable 97% uptime, that gives a carbon debt per kWh of 317 grams CO2e, or 60% of natural gas.
Your arguments are flaws. These technologies are the future!
can't believe this company worth more than a billion with such a dumb idea. They could setup a metal battery recycling plant using only excess energy and make more money from it.
What about using the already installed base of elevators, around the world ?
I wonder how much water a city uses, and if water towers could be used similarly. We have to pump it up there anyway, and it could generate electricity on the way back down.