Interesting article here about an idea stemming from Belgium.

The idea is to build an artificial island in form of a doughnut very close to power generating windmills. Power peaks not needed in the onland grid would be put into electric pumps that remove sea water from the center of the doughnut into the ocean, generating potential energy.

When power is once again needed by the grid, water would be let in from the ocean into the evacuated reservoir in the center of the “island”, generating electric power as it moves through turbines.

I haven’t done this type of calculation since college, so I’m just guessing at this point. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to mechanically pump water out of the doughnut and generate electricity with the water turbines? I.e. instead of installing a very costly electric windmill, transfer the torque generated by the propeller (or what do you call that thing rotating on a wind mill?) directly to water pumps to evacuate the island reservoir.

It seems to me that the double loss of efficiency by generating electricity from wind and then converting it to the movement of water via an electric pump would make the mechanical solution more viable…

Tags: Belgium, Energy