Scientists have proposed a new idea for storing energy using elevators in tall buildings, which could transform large urban areas to raise energy standards.
Published in the Journal of Energy, researchers presented a new gravity-based concept that uses the lift and vertical height of tall buildings to store energy.
This innovative approach, known as Lift Energy Storage Technology (LEST), involves lifting heavy containers or other dense objects using elevators to store energy. The researchers explained that LEST connects storage spaces located in two places in the building – one at the bottom and the other built at the highest point of the building.
As elevators in buildings ascend from the bottom up, latent energy is stored as the containers are lifted to their storage locations above.
In the proposed concept, when energy demand is low, robots load the weight into an elevator and lift it to the top of the building where the energy is stored. The researchers emphasized that the process of loading or unloading containers into the elevator was automated with a trailer that entered the elevator, moved up or down, exited the elevator, and placed the containers in storage locations.
When the demand for energy increases, the weight is returned to the elevator and sent back down to generate additional energy.
According to researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, since the elevators are already installed in the buildings, no additional investment or space allocation is necessary for this project.
