Seamus and his energy bags

[TechnologyGod]

Why not use a tether and wench to pull the bag down, and then release it letting the slack out and transferring the energy into a flywheel when you want it back using the buoyancy as a form of resistance for energy storage. The idea is great but there are 2 ways to do it. The air pumping seems mechanically inefficient, but, this is just a second hand observation and I have not done the math.

[cagurtay]

Seamus and his energy balls ^^

[HWGuyEG]

I wonder how the price of those compares to fibreglass, steel, and concrete containers used for the storage of pumped air for energy...

[teomeimf]

I love "FUN BAGS"

[MindCrazedBanjo]

call them egbert and snegbert

[bigatp]

This is an interesting idea that I haven't heard of.

The guy's a bit of a windbag though!

[hellhero999]

he likes them bags

[ikbenharm]

just call em Seamus' Balls!!

you must see the humour of it!!

[lexichronicle2]

"The windmill air pump can't lift such a weight at the end of the arm"

Gears.

"The pressure needed would have to be incredible to pump all the way down."

500psi. Cylinder gas = 2800.

"the bag will collapse no matter how much air pumped into it"

The same way a balloon doesn't collapse when you blow it up?

"The air will turn to liquid with pressure and temperature drop"

No it won't. Even if it did it wouldn't matter, it'd be more energy dense.

"Pay me 300 000"

Why? For doing it wrong?

[cappydawg]

I think this is a brilliant is idea, but i must ask. What's wrong with building standard steel air tanks and placing them at sea level?

[EndeavourLaunch]

Seamus and his balls full of energy..

[7t6e354r]

you need transparent aluminum

[peepeevagi]

My only problem is with the name. Energy bags, it'd never sell. Energy satchels, Energy sacks, you gotta fancy it up man! xD

[ch9il]

i am very sorry to say but this idea will not come in to play. It will cost to much take up to energy and time. If anything goes wrong under water like e.g. something hitting it and pop the bag. That means more money more energy more time. And that is a lot of work to spin a generator get a few hundred nrunning machines.what i think WE should be doing is reducing are energy consumption and planting more trees.

[reinux]

@ch9il watch bill gates' TED talk entitled "innovating to zero". he explains why reducing energy consumption isn't enough.

[153SCORN]

I'll give the solution because no one would pay me for it.

Titanium wind up spring system, it doesn't rust or corrode or break, easy to make and install. Windmill turns winding up the spring. All the energy stays in the spring. Use it at night when it gets colder :0 did it Just add efficiency!!! (Sarcasm) Spring can turn the same generator in the windmill by disconnecting and spinning in the opposite direction at a constant rate to produce electrical current when needed.

It will work...

[153SCORN]

Many factors unaccounted for Seamus.

1. The windmill air pump can't lift such a weight at the end of the arm, also becomes unbalanced?

2. The pressure needed would have to be incredible to pump all the way down to the bag, plus the bag would have additional pressure to be overcome.

3. Air will be compressed by bag in water at high pressure, meaning the bag will collapse no matter how much air pumped into it.

4. The air will turn to liquid with pressure and temperature drop

Pay me 300 000

[starkey7uk]

You genius.

[8nwidth]

Yes! I just needed to blow a few leafs off my loan!

[Splooshiba]

how far off the coast would they need to be placed? cos energy losses in travel are huge

[owfped]

500m under water is only 50atms, that is NOT big pressure that consider to store large quantity of energy unless the air bag is very big, or a lot of air bags are used. By the way, make sure then DON"T explode while ships are on the top of the ocean!!! Because such large quantity of air going to the ocean surface >>>SUDDENLY<<< WILL MAKE THE SHIP SINK TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN. The energy you store under the sea will be the killer of bouyancy that the ship relies on to be afloated.

[TheBenEEeee]

Anyone mind if I referred to this amazing contraption as "wind bag"? I think it'd be funny. "Hook me up to the wind bag, I've got places to go."

[MrWiiSeamus]

one two

[MrWiiSeamus]

one two

[iruleyou]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this before but the thought just occurred to me. Say all this stuff does work and you are able to make a wind turbine and huge bags. If this were done on a huge scale, what would happen to all the displaced seawater? Would I be wrong in assuming that the sea level would rise? And if it did would it rise enough that we would notice, not really at all, or would it really change the coastline. I hope this project continues, if it works out it will be great.

[compugeekmsn]

@iruleyou Yah, we are going to put 100 dodecatillian of thoose down to the botom of the sea

[Viruzzz]

@iruleyou it wouldn't really rise at all. There is no way we could make enough bags for that to happen.

[roidroid]

So is the plan to have the air bags connected to the sea-floor via a pulley system connected to a generator?

Coz it seems you could store more energy in the buoyancy potential, than you could in air pressure in the bags themselves.

Kinda the opposite of how grandfather clocks store energy in their hanging weights.

As you want to store energy - wind the airbag down lower. When you want to release energy - let it float up a bit - driving a generator.

[saxyweed]

As I see it the bags are statically anchored very near the sea floor. The energy is stored (bags filled) by air compressors on the surface. To retrieve the energy the airline from the bag is fed into a turbine or piston engine (like a steam engine, but with compressed air) that turns an electric generator.

With the compressor and generator on the surface there are no moving parts underwater making it more reliable and easier to service the parts that generally need servicing.

[LostSpider]

not so sure, why not use gas tanks to compress air inland? or use the energy to pump water back to hydro-electric reservoirs? the energy you can store is very low compared to water reservoirs

[latebyrd]

They don't just compress air, the volume displacement actually lifts the ocean a tiny little bit (inverting the principle of the water reservoir). Placing a number of those bags on the sea floor around a wind turbine makes optimal use of the location. Compared to one big hydroelectric dam this is a decentralized solution with potentially fewer transport losses and no single point of failure. A big dam combines well with a nuclear power plant, the bags combine well with wind turbines.

[saxyweed]

This air bag system is cheaper to implement and scale or move. Compressed air on the surface would require much stronger/expensive tanks/bags because the pressure difference between inside and outside the tank. If the above ground system fails its pretty bad. If the below water system fails it not near as bad. There have been pumped water energy storage systems. I can think of tower bridge and cabin creek hydro as two examples. But again they're big+expensive.

[glenwoofit]

Hmm, An interesting idea but i think it will turn out to be full of hot air or should i say compressed air when its put forward for a viable energy solution.

[quietthomas]

So this is an energy storage system?... with the wind generators generating, and the boat as a way to swap what's collected to batteries (rather than balloons) and get the power back to land?

Am I understanding this right?

[insAneTunA]

yes

[TheLensmith]

What an elegant and beautiful design , the art of engineering at it's best. The rotor based piston compressor "machine" is a delight.

[theburninator88]

only 10% lost? thats crazy good efficiency, unless he is talking about just the bags and not the turbine as well

[owfped]

@theburninator88

I am with you. 10% lost by using turbine to regenerate electricity is just impossible.

[Viruzzz]

@owfped That's not what he said though. He said 10% lost in the storage of the energy, meaning 10% less compared to if they made energy directly out of the giant windmills rather than pump the air into these bags first.

[assqwert]

simple idea. nice, can me made into a farm with a central generator.

[paronfisk]

Name the bags; Fun-bags :D

[OtterPops22]

interesting. hope to see them someday in use.

[P00P0STER0US]

Great work, I love your new puffer fish! :o)

[ElveeKaye]

Why does energy need to be stored under the ocean in bags? And you'll have tubes or pipes going from the bags up into the wind turbines on the surface, right? What if pieces break off? That's more trash to drift about in the ocean. How will whales navigate around all these obstacles?

[jnthnbush]

why not just use the wind turbines to generate electricity? Its seams like there is a waste or energy here.

[chentiangemalc]

i think that is the idea - but then if not all the energy generated by the wind is being used at a given time the leftover energy will be stored.

[jnthnbush]

so store it a battery or have the windmills connected with electrical lines to a land based station. Shit can still hook into these.

[speadskater]

@jnthnbush Because you don't always need the electricity. This seems like it's going to be used to charge ships. What happens when there are no ships to be charged?

[jnthnbush]

I dunno what happens? If it was stored in a battery then it can still wait for a ship. It just seam like the loss of efficiency is higher than a regular generator. I am sure the scientists have figured it out, but to me it seams like they are adding a step where you can loose energy to heat loss.

[roidroid]

i think the point is that these bags are cheaper than batteries, it's easier to store large amounts of energy cheaply.

[itsabomberscope]

Very nice. Is it possible to fill the bags with hydrogen (taken from the sea), instead of air. Perhaps a small wave power generator on ship, could provide the electricity to extract the hydrogen, or some solar set up.

[Misterb0z]

Excellent idea!

Why don't videos like this get featured? It's the kind of thing that gets people thinking about science, as well as some pretty important political issues.

What about it, YouTube?

[CRUK87]

Can anybody tell me how much electricity could be generated by these things? How many bage would you need to operate that turbine in the ship? I'm guessing that a full bag wouldn't spin the turbine for very long. Also how long would it take for a bag to go through a full cycle of filling with compressed air and then releasing it?

[IamdjJoeDrama]

a no homo

[seamus205]

my name is seamus

[BGenerous]

To bad there probably aren't a lot of suitable underwater caverns--then you wouldn't even need the bags.

[ch9il]

i am very sorry to say but this idea will not come in to play it will cost to much take up to energy and time if anything goes wrong under water that means more money more energy more time.what i think we should be doing is reducing energy use and planting more trees

[Isanion]

i'd love to see the details of the feasibility study you conducted in order to come to that conclusion.

[jnthnbush]

I agree with you, but the tree part is not relative to the problem.

[Digeridude]

Dudley and Bo. That's what you should name them. Brown one is Dudley. Red one Bo.

[Ollopaman]

its a great idea but too high of a initial cost, installation, etc. Maybe utilizing on the idea but less work for mass production

[ColinMGOFan]

This solves so many of todays problems. CO2 emissions, global warming, animal populations and the list goes on. A truely brilliant idea.

[gravyboy2]

I think that this is a genius idea, one that MUST be recognized in order to reduce CO2 levels and it conveniently solves intermittency problems as well... best of luck to you with this project!

[RJLeffmann]

Bags of pure, unadulterated energy. Will this really work?

[matthew623210]

This could mean great things for the future! Hope all goes well!

Matt

[FccProducer]

I'm interested to see what happens next. I love the idea of utilizing the natural energy this planet holds.

[shaurz]

Using the pressure of the sea to store a lot more energy is genius.

[sciencoking]

heeeey... niiiice :D

when i saw that giant-ass-compressor in one of your previous videos i was just like "wtf???"

but now that makes kind of sense... really cool!

[Mementomori690069]

Nuclear fusion reactors > Wind turbines.

[bobbyllew]

What a simple and brilliant idea. Very impressive. Energy storage is a vital part of the equation and this seems the best idea I have yet come across

[bungopony]

I was in the kitchen, Seamus my old hound was outside.

[EvieGurl6]

This is awesome.

[jfcrow1]

I do not understand why this research. Nuclear Energy has much higher energy density and is proven technology. All this silly windmill stuff is a waste of time.

[afhdfh]

Well, if you find a way to get rid of the nuclear fuel rods without contaminating the environment and piling it up underground, it really is a good method to get energy (though a quite dangerous one compared to compressed air...).

[EvieGurl6]

@jfcrow1 Its not a waste of time, its safer, cheaper, and readilly available everywhere, unlike nuclear energy.

[jnthnbush]

Nuclear energy is the best hope for our future. They are working on ways to reuse the depleted rods until they and not radioactive.

[videoofmike]

90% efficiency is awsome

[WorldStove]

such a nice system, the turbine compressors too are a lovely idea

[NautiKijana]

How about "Bob" and "Joe"???

[nottinghamscience]

@jhony357 Thanks - sorted.

[Endolaylith]

They look like clam shells. Maybe you could name them Garvey Clams or something along those lines.

[CrazyMrChris]

With this system, what's the carbon footprint of the actual manufacture of those bags, the compressor, and the amount of water used / will be using in testing? And, more importantly, does the energy saved by using that system instead of using electricity from a turbine balance out the aforementioned footprint?

[OliverWinton]

its research, what we CAN do. it wont be at its most efficient until it has been around for several years.