Why Not Use heavy Bouys w/ Pumped Water Energy Storage

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https://youtu.be/iGGOjD_OtAM

I’m assuming for a similar reason the thing in the video is impractical?

Otherwise would having either Bouys or maybe a boat with a bunch of weights on it add to the efficiency? The rising water will lift it. Move the boat/weights/bouy out of the water reservoir

Need energy? Drain the water. Water gone? Lower the weights.

More effort than it’s worth? Potential issue being the water reservoir not filling all the way, but perhaps there are ways to engineer around it.

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The issue is that it is pointless.

As stated by Archimedes’ Principle (circa 246 BC) a floating object displaces its equivalent weight of the fluid in which it is floating. If you have a 40 ton floating buoy then the space it takes up below the water line would contain exactly 40 tons of water. So if you pump water into a reservoir with a heavy buoy in it then you might as well just be pumping water without the buoy, the water level will reach the same point with exactly the same effort. To retrieve the energy you just need to let the water back out through a turbine that drives a generator. No need to bother with buoys, cables, etc.

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