ELECTRICAL POWER STORAGE AND DELIVERY USING MAGNETIC LEVITATION TECHNOLOGY

摘要

One or more magnetic levitation vehicles (52) are provided to transport a storage mass (54) over a magnetic levitation guideway (56) extending between an elevated upper end (60) and a lower end (72) at a lower elevation, and including a plurality of magnetic propulsion windings (80). Movement of a magnetic levitation vehicle (52) with the storage mass (54) along the magnetic levitation guideway (56) from the elevated upper end to the lower end generates electrical energy through the propulsion windings (80) of the magnetic levitation guideway (56). The magnetic levitation (52) vehicle with a storage mass (54) can be propelled from the lower end to the upper end of the magnetic levitation guideway (56), where the storage mass (54) is unloaded to store gravitational potential energy. The magnetic levitation vehicle (52) and storage mass (54) can then be moved to the lower end of the magnetic levitation guideway (56) to convert the stored gravitational potential energy to electrical power. The magnetic levitation guideway (56) can be an inclined guideway or a vertically oriented guideway, can be a surface guideway, can be disposed in a sub-surface tunnel, or can be a combination of a surface guideway and a sub-surface tunnel.