Stardate 20010802.1333 (On Screen): This story describes a way of storing energy which involves using abandoned mines. The mouth of the mine is sealed off, and when energy is plentiful the mine is filled with compressed air at up to 75 atmospheres. When energy is needed, it is released again and used to generate electricity. My biggest problem with this is that they're going to flexing the structure of the ground in which the mine was dug. Over the course of hundreds of cycles, there will be weakening, and eventually you're going to get something catastrophic: either a blowout or a ground collapse somewhere. If you really need a significant energy storage system, why not build a reservoir on the top of a big hill and pump water up to it?
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