Abandoned Well Gravity Energy Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing energy storage technologies, such as Pumped Hydro and conventional gravity-based systems, face challenges in providing efficient and cost-effective solutions for storing intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, due to high infrastructure costs and environmental impacts.
Innovation Solution
The use of inactive or abandoned wellbores to house a movable mass for potential energy storage, leveraging the existing infrastructure of non-producing wells to create a gravity-based energy conversion system that stores energy by raising and lowering the mass within the well, utilizing existing infrastructure to minimize capital investment and environmental impact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If Pumped Hydro is used for large-scale energy storage, then energy storage capacity is improved, but environmental impact and infrastructure requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system utilizes existing abandoned well infrastructure to provide energy storage services, allowing the well to serve dual purposes (original resource extraction and energy storage) without requiring new infrastructure construction, thereby avoiding environmental disruption while maintaining storage capacity
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the operating parameters by using much smaller mass volumes (compared to Pumped Hydro's large water volumes) and leveraging the existing wellbore structure, transforming the system from requiring massive infrastructure to using compact, existing infrastructure for the same energy storage function
2Loss of energy
If conventional gravity-based systems are used for energy storage, then storage efficiency is improved, but infrastructure costs worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The abandoned well infrastructure is repurposed to serve multiple functions: it provides the vertical shaft for mass movement, the containment structure, and the operational environment, eliminating the need to construct dedicated towers or pits and significantly reducing infrastructure costs while maintaining storage efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of discarding abandoned wells as non-functional infrastructure, the system recovers their utility by converting them into energy storage facilities, transforming a liability into an asset and avoiding the costs of constructing new infrastructure while preserving high storage efficiency
3Quantity of substance
If larger masses are used in gravity-based systems to increase storage capacity, then energy storage potential is improved, but infrastructure complexity and costs worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system leverages the vertical dimension of the existing wellbore (which can extend thousands of feet deep) to achieve high energy storage potential with relatively small masses, avoiding the need for horizontally expansive infrastructure or increasingly complex support structures that would result from using larger masses at ground level
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 approach enables efficient energy storage and release with reduced environmental impact and infrastructure costs, utilizing existing wells to convert a non-producing asset into a revenue-generating energy storage resource, while also providing an economic incentive for plugging wells and reducing methane leakage.
Implementation Method 1
a movable mass suspended by a line in a non-producing well... storing and releasing potential energy as the movable mass travels up and down therein
Data Source
AI summary
Potential energy conversion systems include a movable mass suspended by a line in a non-producing well, in which the line is coupled to a motor operable to lift the movable mass and a generator operable to produce electricity when lowering the movable mass. A fluid fills at least a portion of the non-producing well, and a volume of the fluid is sufficient to immerse or fully immerse the movable mass when the movable mass is raised to an uppermost position in the non-producing well. A storage tank is configured to receive fluid displaced from the non-producing well as the movable mass is lowered from a higher location to a lower location in the non-producing well and to return the fluid to the non-producing well as the movable mass is raised from the lower location.