Power and Energy Storage
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Power and Energy Storage |
Once energy has been generated by various means (see this page for some sources of energy used in the Orion's Arm civilisation) it must then either be transmitted directly to the consumer for immediate use, or stored in some form for later consumption. Energy storage can be as simple as pumping water to a higher elevation so that the potential energy can be used at a later date, to converting energy into matter/antimatter pairs and containing the antimatter in long-term storage. One low-to-medium tech storage option involves the production of a high density fuel of some kind, perhaps hydrogen, alchohol, or kerosine; this fuel can then be used in a variety of internal combustion engines and other motors.
The efficiency of energy and power storage by a particular medium can be measured and this determines how that medium is best used.
The Energy Density of a medium is the amount of energy stored in a medium per unit mass or per unit volume. For some purposes the energy per unit mass is most important, for instance in rocketry, where the fuel has to be carried on board ship at launch and accelerated with the payload before use. In other cases the energy per unit volume is also important, where the size of the energy storage system is an issue, such as in small vehicles and self-powered machinery.
Power Density is a measure of how much energy can be extracted from a given mass (or volume) of an energy storage medium in a given time; some energy storage media give out stored energy slowly, so are not useful for applications which require a lot of power quickly. Other energy storage systems can give very high power output; sometimes this output is powerful enough to be used directly as a weapon or for propulsion.
Amat Containment There have been many different systems used to contain antimatter throughout the ages. The most common has always been the magnetic bottle, capable of maintaining any charged amat as long as it remains powered. Other varieties include laser-pressure containment, utilizing 6 split beams of laser light striking the amat, keeping it pinned in the target zone, or buckminsterfullerene sequestered amat.
BioChemical Fuel production: hydrogen, alcohol, high-octane fuels can all be produced by geneneered biological systems
Capacitors - electrical energy can be stored by various means at very high energy densities
Nano-flywheels - mechanical energy stored as angular momentum at a very small scale.
