• cholesterol@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    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.

    • ladicius@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      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.

    • stoy@lemmy.zip
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      10 days ago

      Kinda like the mine in the UK that use a cableway without a motor to bring ore down and empty buckets up

    • whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works
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      10 days ago

      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

      • groet@feddit.org
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        10 days ago

        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.

        • TomSelleck@lemm.ee
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          10 days ago

          Open pit is much more common for this type of equipment and it’s basically a reverse mountain. Still might be enough regenerative braking from just the weight of the truck though.

          • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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            10 days ago

            Still might be enough regenerative braking from just the weight of the truck though.

            In that case no, because it’d be bringing the weight of the truck and the ore with it.

          • groet@feddit.org
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            10 days ago

            An open pit at an elevation of 1.5km still means the bottom of the pit could be 1km higher than the place the ore is processed at

      • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz
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        10 days ago

        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.

        • Optional@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          I love that I knew this conversation was going to happen as soon as I read the article.

          And, yes.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I guess it all depends on the physical layout but this seems like a very complicated way to get material downhill.