Oil well project would commercialize gravity energy storage

Kern County oil fields look more and more like a viable place for storing renewable energy to help balance the state power grid.

Bakersfield startup Renewell Energy is working on its first commercial system using renewably powered winches to lift weights from near the bottom of oil wells. Later, after the sun goes down and wind stops, lowering the weights will run a generator that feeds the grid.

It’s at least the second technology proposed for repurposing local oil fields to cover gaps in the availability of solar and wind power. Another Bakersfield company, Premier Resource Management LLC, hopes to turn depleted oil reservoirs into synthetic geothermal storage.

Read full article at Bakersfield.com