Modular Underwater Pumped-Storage Reservoir Modules
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge is to create a modular reservoir for an underwater pumped storage power plant that offers low manufacturing effort, low costs, flexibility, expandability, high pressure resistance, stability, and safety, while also being environmentally friendly, particularly suitable for installation in dry but floodable ground depressions like abandoned open pit mines, to support the energy transition by providing short-term storage capacity for regenerative energy sources like wind and photovoltaics.
Innovation Solution
A modular arrangement of pressure vessel modules with face-to-face adjacency without gaps, each equipped with its own turbine, pump, and/or pump turbine, allowing independent operation, and featuring a pressure guide structure to enhance pressure resistance, with a design that includes cylindrical sections and a sliding construction for cost-effective production, and the use of planar surface sections for increased stability and storage capacity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a modular arrangement of pressure vessel modules is used, then flexibility and expandability are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reservoir is divided into multiple identical pressure vessel modules that can be arranged in series or parallel configurations. Each module is a self-contained unit with standardized dimensions and interfaces, allowing flexible assembly to achieve different storage capacities and operational characteristics while simplifying manufacturing and maintenance.
2Strength
If pressure vessel modules are arranged face-to-face without gaps, then pressure resistance and stability are improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The pressure vessel modules are pre-assembled into stable geometric configurations (such as hexagonal or cubic arrangements) where the face-to-face contact geometry is predetermined. This preliminary structural arrangement ensures that when modules are placed together, they naturally achieve optimal contact alignment, reducing the actual manufacturing precision requirements during final assembly.
3Reliability
If each pressure vessel module is equipped with its own turbine and pump, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The drive system is segmented and integrated into each pressure vessel module, with each module containing its own turbine, pump, or pump-turbine unit. This modular drive system allows independent operation of each module, improving reliability through redundancy while enabling flexible configuration to optimize complexity and cost for different operational requirements.
4Object-generated harmful factors
If the reservoir is constructed in a dry but floodable ground depression, then environmental friendliness is improved, but construction complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pressure vessel modules are constructed and pre-assembled on dry land in a ground depression before the site is flooded. This preliminary construction approach allows for easier and more cost-effective module fabrication, assembly, and testing in accessible conditions, while the subsequent flooding completes the pumped storage system with minimal additional construction complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution provides a reliable, efficient, and cost-effective means to store and generate electrical energy, with reduced damage risk from earthquakes and increased pressure resistance, enabling the construction of large-scale short-term storage capacity necessary for the energy transition, such as in the Hambach open pit mine, while minimizing material usage and environmental impact.
Implementation Method 1
the pressure vessel modules may preferably be operated such that electrical energy is generated when water is admitted into the pressure vessel modules from the flooded ground deperession and electrical energy is stored when water is discharged from the pressure vessel modules into the flooded ground deperession
Implementation Method 2
each equipped with its own turbine, pump, and/or pump turbine
Data Source
AI summary
As underwater pumped storage power plant reservoir in a dry but floodable ground depression, comprises a modular arrangement of several individual pressure vessel modules for the intermediate storage of electrical energy from other power plants, wherein the pressure vessel modules each have an outer wall with at least one flow-through opening for letting in and/or letting out water and can each be filled with water and/or pumped empty independently of one another when the dry ground depression is flooded with water, and wherein the modular arrangement of the pressure vessel modules is designed in such a way that the pressure vessel modules are arranged with respect to one another in the dry ground depression with their outer wall face-to face adjacent to one another.