The dump truck, at 45 tons, ascends the 13-percent grade and takes on 65 tons of ore. With more than double the weight going back down the hill, the beast's regenerative braking system recaptures more than enough energy to refill the charge the eDumper used going up.
So the energy this truck uses is harnessed via mining and loading... Essentially this energy was stored in the ore via geological processes.
This truck uses continental drift as his fuel.
In other words, OP's mom.
Boom
Or in physics terms, potential energy.
Since everything seems to be going downhill right now, how would I harness that power? You telling me the crystal peddling influencers were right all along? 🤣
I've seen a cable lift that worked basically like that. It transferred ore down the mountain, so heavy buckets going down lifted the empty buckets back up.
Kinda like the mine in the UK that use a cableway without a motor to bring ore down and empty buckets up
Is that just a gravity battery that just so happens to be a dump truck as well?
So it was designed for this mine I guess?
I'm not sure there's a lot of mine you're going down filled up, the images I have in mind are quite the opposite, but that's a really cool idea!
There actually is some design to stock energy this way, with weights you lift while having excess energy
Depends on the scale of "going down". Many mines are in the mountains and the material has to be brought down to lower elevations. The mine entry may be lower than the nearest pass but still a lot higher than the destination of the ore.
If you're thinking of that CGI crane lifting concrete blocks, it's unfortunately a really bad idea.
Pumped hydro stores energy by lifting weight uphill, instead. Water is basically the cheapest thing you can get per tonne, and is easy to contain and move.
To store useful amounts of energy using gravity, you need pretty large elevation differences and millions of tonnes of mass to move.
Reminds me of this ropeway thing that Tom Scott covered that doesn't require power input either, for similar reasons:
Niche application but still cool.
Amateurs.
The 1963 Černý Důl – Kunčice nad Labem aerial ropeway is over 8 km (5 mi) long, over 30 m high in places and carries 135 tons of limestone every hour from a quarry to the nearest train station. Its 120kW 3-phase synchronous motor requires power for a few minutes at the start and end of each day when most of the 800kg-capacity trolleys are empty, and spends most of the shift generating mains electricity and acting as a speed governor. Unlike the EV, it is fully autonomous most of the way, only 5 people are required to operate it. (Loading, unloading and timed dispatching is automatic, arriving/leaving carts just need to be checked; a safety latch has to be manually dis/engaged on trolleys passing the check.) The quarry will continue operation as long as it pays off, then the ropeway will be scrapped (projected 2033). A dude illegally rode the way up on it somewhat recently. He could have fallen to his death if he pulled the latch.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are electrified railway lines doing the same. Regenerate large amounts of energy into the grid while descending loaded; consume a relatively small amount of energy to haul the empty train back uphill.
Paywall article, but this already exists in Australia for pretty much the same use case: https://www.railtech.com/rolling-stock/2022/03/04/australian-mining-company-works-on-infinity-train-using-gravity-to-regenerating-batteries/?gdpr=deny
An early version of the Petřín ropeway in Prague used to contain tanks in both cars. The upper one would be filled with ~~sewage~~ collected rainwater from the city's hilltop quarter and the energy of the descent was used to pull the other car up. Additionally, the way up cost twice as much so there was an incentive to ascend on foot, which was about as fast despite the incline.
Content aside, what a great video! It's not that old of a video but it reminds me so much of early YouTube, just friends messing around and posting it with top tier song choice.
EV never has to be recharged... Because it recharges on the way downhill.
"World's largest EV never has to be plugged in" is sufficiently click-baity without being so dumbly self contradicting
More like “never has to stop working to charge”. It is novel that its charging mechanism operates as a function of doing its primary job.
Reminds me of some guy with a OneWheel that was saying he'd never charged his board in like a thousand miles as his daily commuter.
He lives near the top of a mountain lift, so he takes it home and just runs on pure regen lol.
I think it's still pretty cool. Turning potential energy to kenetic
"World's largest EV"
Blatantly untrue. Larger EVs have been in use for more than a century at this point in the form of EMU trains.
The emus have trains now?!
Take that Australia!
Yeah we're proper fucked tbh
It was part of the treaty. That and the Great Dingo Barrier.
We truly are lost...
I'll pick up the pedantic torch. Trains are made of train cars, I'd argue each one is a separate car or vehicle even though they're strapped together.
I feel like The ISS ticks a lot of the boxes for a vehicle though, how big is that?
Sure, but quite often in EMUs the cars come in sets that can't operate disconnected from each other, so I'd argue that they still comprise a single vehicle.
~~I'd argue that the ISS, due to lacking means of propulsion (unless you count explosive decompression) is not a vehicle.~~
Click bait that actually makes me glad I clicked???
I cannot avoid to be pedantic on this, it is recharged during half the trip… it just does not require plug-like recharging
Till elon finds out that if he manages to cover the sun, he can charge us on sunscription
well that was unexpected
I'm curious if the desgin team knew about it in advance
Are you asking if Swiss guys knew about mountains? )
hahaha guess it boils down to that 😂
but I was specifically wondering if they built the vehicle with a charger and ended up never using it, to their own surprise. or if they knew they'd (almost) never have to charge it
yes it does. just going by the numbers posted operating in the space it does results in a net loss of12% battery each trip.
I read the story.
I saw the comments on the story
I laughed at the pedantic slapfights happening in the comments.
I came here to comment on the neat story and poke fun at the silliness, to find the same pedantic slapfights here.
Sigh.
Very cool! It's a pretty specialized use case, but still awesome to see.
2017
At 50 tons and 700 kilowatt-hours, this truck is the biggest EV in the world Each round trip will generate 10kWh of spare electricity for the grid.
Cool EV bruh, but can the horn make a fart noise?
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
