I was thinking about the pumped water storage idea and then started to think
about the energy in the system.
If there is a full tank at the top and an empty tank at the bottom then the
potential energy in the system is mgh (mass of water x gravitational constant x
height difference).
So if you let the water flow from top tank to bottom tank through a simple pipe
then the potential energy is gone. (assuming bottom tank is at height 0).
Now put the water back into the top tank and this time put a turbine in the
pipe. The water flows from the top tank to the bottom tank and power is
generated by the turbine and extracted from the system. But the difference in
potential energy in the system is the same. All the water from the top is now
in the bottom. Where did the energy that was extracted from the system by the
turbine come from?
I'm sure that the answer is somewhere in the statement in the first case where
the water flows through a simple pipe. The potential energy in the system has
changed - so where did the energy go? I dont know.
Dominic Read
Georgia, USA.
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