Experimental Evaluation of a Buoyancy Driven Energy Storage Device

An experimental study on buoyancy driven-storage device is presented in the paper. The proposed device is forced to descend into a tank filled with a certain fluid the tension of a nylon wire that allows it to remain stationary at the bottom of the tank until the energy is needed. It is then released to reach the surface of the fluid liberating energy during that process. This paper also briefly presents the theoretical background and compares it with the experimental results. The application of this research is related to energy storage by non-conventional energy sources during off-peak timings. The experiments performed, have confirmed the validity of the approach and efficiency of the current system exceeds more than 40%. Other advantages like compact storage setups, higher energy density retrieval, longer life and low maintenance cost has made it more authentic than chemical storage devices.