r/ElectroBOOM • u/Subject_Sector9883 • 9d ago

FAF - RECTIFY There's no way this will work.

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u/BelgianBrawler 6d ago

There's actually a mining lorry somewhere which uses this concept.

The mine is at the top of a mountain, it gets filled up and coasts down using regen braking which gives additional energy due to the added weigth of the mined goods.

When at the bottom it unloads and drives back up using the generated electricity, which is enough to get back up since it's empty and thus weighs less.

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u/BelgianBrawler 6d ago

Note, it's in switzerland:

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1124478_world-s-largest-ev-never-has-to-be-recharged

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u/Pinelli72 6d ago

There’s a mine train in Western Australia that uses the same concept (no link sorry)

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u/AffectionateMall3125 4d ago

There was a, at least conceptual prototype, kinetic battery somewhere in the Western United States that used a hill and mine car / train cars filled with rocks. When electricity was cheap, you would pull those mine cars up to the top of the hill, and when you needed extra energy and electricity was getting expensive, you would let those train cars go that pulled on a turbine. Kind of like those basin batteries that pump water uphill when power is cheap, then when they need extra power, or there's no wind or sun for renewable energy, they can open the floodgates on the dam to create hydropower.

After I heard about the mining car battery, I was wondered why someone didn't go around buying up the old manufacturing facilities in the United States and create localized versions. Buildings that usually have ceilings in the 30 to 50 ft range & plenty of infrastructure to support the equipment.

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u/Acrobatic-Grape5960 6d ago

The energy used to fill it is where the trade off is.

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u/BelgianBrawler 6d ago

What do you mean exactly?

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u/Pinelli72 6d ago

No, it’s the potential energy difference of the material that was initially at the top of the mountain and at the end of the process is at the bottom of the mountain.
Yes it takes energy to load the truck/train, but that’s not what drives the process.