An Australian renewable-energy firm plans to make use of gravity as a “fuel” to generate electrical energy in India’s iconic however now-defunct Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka. Image for representational objective solely.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
An Australian renewable-energy firm’s distinctive scheme to generate electrical energy may resuscitate the fortunes of one in every of India’s iconic however defunct gold mines, particularly the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), in Karnataka.
A hiccup that makes renewable vitality unreliable, from photo voltaic or wind power, is that there isn’t a power throughout nights or windless days. Charging a battery to make use of as a backup throughout this downtime hikes power costs. While the widespread method to addressing this problem is to design them higher, discover extra environment friendly conducting supplies and set up massive battery farms to retailer power, Green Gravity’s concept is to depend on low-tech gravity.
Their plan is to seek out defunct mines, which frequently go a whole bunch and even hundreds of metres deep, and haul a ‘weighted block’ — this could possibly be as a lot as 40 tonnes — as much as the highest of the mine shaft utilizing renewable power in the course of the day when such power is obtainable. When backup power is required, the heavy block will fall, underneath gravity, and the following momentum will power a generator by way of a linked shaft (or rotor). The depth to which the block can slip might be decided by way of a braking system, thus giving management on the quantity of power that may be produced.
The similar precept underlies the so-called ‘pumped hydropower’ storage, a well-established method the place water from the bottom is pumped upstream electrically right into a reservoir. From right here, when wanted, water is launched downhill to maneuver a turbine and produce electrical energy, like in a hydroelectric plant.
Pumped hydropower, and even Green Gravity’s method, may use extra vitality than produced however when accounting for having the ability to make renewable vitality out there at off-peak hours, can imply much less reliance on coal-produced power and entry to dependable power. Currently, India has put in about 4,746 MW of pumped-storage, based on figures from India’s Central Electricity Authority.
Using weighted blocks as an alternative of water implies that decommissioned mines might be put to make use of and the environmental prices and challenges of transferring water up might be averted, Mark Swinnerton, Founder and CEO, Green Gravity advised The Hindu. “By using gravity as the fuel, we dispense with consuming the critical water, land, and chemicals which other storage technologies rely on.”
“At mines such as at Kolar, you can produce up to 100 or even thousands of megawatt-hours of power,” Mr. Swinnerton mentioned. Some of the KGF’s deepest mines run practically 3,000 metres. Operational for nearly two centuries, the KGF mines — the world’s second deepest — has reportedly yielded practically 800 tonnes of gold for 51 million tonnes of mined rock.
However, years of diminishing returns have led to the mines being deserted for industrial prospecting. Gold aside, the mines have additionally been used in particle physics experiments the place analysis groups have found elusive, cosmic particles known as atmospheric neutrinos.
While the KGF mines have “potential”, extra work is required to ascertain if they’re appropriate for renewable vitality manufacturing. Later this 12 months, Green Gravity would start their first take a look at of the system in mines in Australia. Making the weighted blocks, designing and putting in a braking system (to arrest their fall) and connecting it to the electrical grids have been the main prices of the enterprise. “Every mine shaft, on average, is expected to cost AU$20-30 million (1 Australian dollar = ₹55),” he added.
Mr. Swinnerton has talked to officers on the Ministry of Mines as properly the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in addition to tied up with researchers on the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad for funding to raised assess the feasibility of the KGF mines. “The response has been encouraging and we hope to be able to start this next year,” he mentioned.
(The author is in Australia, courtesy the nation’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
