this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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I'm not saying storing potential energy doesn't work, it works and even though we lose some energy in conversion it's still better than chemical batteries. No question there, my point is simple, we don't have enough infrastructure to cover the world's baseload demand by releasing stored energy. We need something that can produce baseload power 24x7. Geothermal and tidal(debatable but close enough) are the only viable renewable energy sources we have that run 24x7 and they're not enough to cover the world's energy demands. Adding PSEH doesn't cover it either. We need something more and nuclear (fission or fusion) are the only other options that don't emit CO2.
Here is where my disagreement lies. There is multitude of ways to store potential energy. I understand your point that only 16% of the world's energy usage can be covered by natural sites that lend themselves to this. There are other ways to do this though, for one there is old coal mines that may be repurposed for this. There is also already existing systems like the sewers that can be outfitted to also allow stormdrains to double for this after repurposing them. There is many more way to store potential energy physically than just pumping water up a hill or between different levels of underground ravines...
You could use electrolysis, I am not sure how feasible that would be, however the assertion that this simply won't work I do not buy. You could simply wind a large number of springs or other such maybe natural systems to create the same effect.
All of our energy comes either from the sun or from other stars that ceased. The amount of energy that hits the earth in the form of sunlight is massive and is imho the only presently available energy source we could use today on a large scale. This of course would require a massive engineering effort, but to outright dismiss this sounds like trolling to me.