Wasn’t this already debunked as a poor replacement for pumped storage hydro electric? The blocks and the things moving them will always have more wear than water and turbines.
I believe the argument against solid block gravity batteries is that you can achieve the same thing with water by using old mines or even just digging a 40story hole. If you have room for the 40 story tower then you have room for a more efficient pumped hydro hole.
Wasn’t this already debunked as a poor replacement for pumped storage hydro electric? The blocks and the things moving them will always have more wear than water and turbines.
Recycling lithium ion batteries isn’t easy either though, and you might not have the geography for hydro.
I believe the argument against solid block gravity batteries is that you can achieve the same thing with water by using old mines or even just digging a 40story hole. If you have room for the 40 story tower then you have room for a more efficient pumped hydro hole.
Plus, concrete is super dirty to produce and actually not so dense.
The article mentions using greener things like waste and soil.
And if you were using redundant mine shaft thats greener than building new structures.
Arguably you could use pumped hydro with the abandoned mine shaft?