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Energy sources like the sun and wind have the capacity to provide endless amounts of clean energy if we could only figure a way to properly store them when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. A team of engineers from Cambridge University think they might have a solution: a giant battery that can store energy using gravel. Elevating the idiom “you’ve got rocks in your head” to a whole new level, these scientists hope to solve the sustainable issue plaguing renewables . About his battery Jonathan Howe, founder of Isentropic states that: “If you bolt this to a wind farm, you could store the intermittent and relatively erratic energy and give it back in a reliable and controlled manner.” Howe in order to prove his theories is designing and constructing a small pilot plant that could store 16MWh at full capacity, this could be enough energy to serve the electrical needs of thousands of homes. WorldChanging , in an article, describes how two properly outfitted silos of gravel 7 meters tall and 7 meters in diameter would be all that is needed for storage and retrieval of the renewable energy. Surplus renewable energy storage is a looming issue requiring a sustainably elegant solution, Isentropic’s battery may just prove to be one. (Photo credit: Seldom Scene Photography (was Old Dog Photo) on flickr ) Glossary: Renewable energy , Solar power , Water , Sustainable , Emissions , Lead, Renewable , Down , Trade, Technology, battery Products: Water

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Viable renewable energy storage via giant gravel batteries