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This startup wants to use the Earth as a massive battery
(www.technologyreview.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2025
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Technology
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yep, 100%
that's even one of their main selling points:
this seems to fall into the bucket of "fossil fuel industry looking for ways to diversify and still make profits even as fossil fuel usage declines"
also notable is that fracking for oil is typically a one-time (or at least time-limited) thing. you do it to some rock formation, extract the oil or natural gas from it, and then move on to another formation.
what they're pursuing here seems to be repeated fracking, pumping water in and back out over and over again. this article about Racoon Mountain in TN for example, mentions a daily pumping cycle - fill up the reservoir using excess nuclear power at night, then drain it during the day.
they're claiming success based on pumping in water, sealing it up for 6 months, then pumping it back out again. that's very different from pumping water in and out of this "impermeable" rock every 24 hours, for years or decades (Racoon Mountain was built in the 1970s)