• @[email protected]
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    3834 months 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      3324 months 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      594 months ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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      344 months 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

      • @[email protected]
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        394 months 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          24 months 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
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            184 months 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            34 months 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

      • @[email protected]
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        224 months 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
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          54 months ago

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

          And, yes.

    • @[email protected]
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      14 months ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    4 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      144 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        4 months ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        44 months ago

        I don’t know about going downhill in general, but there are some that use regenerative braking (regular braking, on flat terrain) so maybe

      • bluGill
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        -54 months ago

        Most mines are underground so for most this can’t work, but where it does they are sure to use it.

        • @[email protected]
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          34 months ago

          Regular trains don’t run underground. Lots of opencast mines exist .

          Basically all mines have an above ground terminal where whatever you mined is unloaded from your underground trains, lifts, haul trucks or whatever else onto storage piles, then loaded onto the actual long distance trains.

          If the mine entry is up a mountain, then the trip down from that point will be a net energy producer regardless of anything else.

    • @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        34 months ago

        I know, this one is shorter and has mechanical brakes. Not as great but I imagine the Czech one, one of the largest in Europe, has very few English-language sources that could have pointed it out to him. I don’t know whether the Claughton one cannot be ridden or Tom is just squeamish about safety (see description) but the Černý Důl one definitely can, that’s how they do routine inspections.

  • @[email protected]
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    4 months ago

    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

    • @[email protected]
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      234 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        64 months ago

        Not novel. I think there was a train somewhere in Africa, that transported some ore from mountain to port. On the way down with ore it charged and uphill it used charge.

        • @[email protected]
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          44 months ago

          Is novel for a dump truck to use this. Of course it’s not a completely new concept entirely.

        • @[email protected]
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          4 months ago

          That’s genius. Who cares if thermodynamics wins, it weighs less on the way up so works out just fine.

          Just like the example in TFA.

    • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ
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      94 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        24 months ago

        So he’s just breaking? What a silly thing to claim. I bet he’s not even regening a lot. When i ride up a mountain until my battery is down to 40% or so and ride down i regenerate around 1% or something. It might even be in the 0.6% or something

    • shastaxc
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      74 months ago

      Yeah I was gonna say I’m pretty sure this isn’t a single use, disposable vehicle

  • @[email protected]
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    484 months ago

    “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.

    • @[email protected]
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      194 months ago

      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?

      • @[email protected]
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        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          4 months ago

          The ISS has two different propulsion systems and has used them to avoid debris. I don’t think that it has enough power to leave orbit and reach greater altitude.

      • @[email protected]
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        44 months ago

        This will conversation evolve into two things: are hotdogs and tacos sammiches, and we becoming crabs.

    • @[email protected]
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      74 months ago

      Bagger 288 is also electrically driven. Even if it is connected by cable to a nearby powerplant.

      • @[email protected]
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        64 months ago

        Not very smart that they waste all that energy in mechanical brakes. See my comment (the one with the picture) for a way bigger and electricity-generating ropeway, including a video of a guy less squeamish than Tom Scott riding most of the 45-minute way up.

          • @[email protected]
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            24 months ago

            He literally has

            Filmed safely: https://www.tomscott.com/safe/

            in the description. Meanwhile, that fat dude from Vrchlabí jumped into a moving bucket of one that is faster, 2.5x longer, at deadly height, and his only plan of getting down safely was a mattress. He acknowledged how illegal and dangerous it is and yet publishes the video with his full name.

            Just accept it, Tom Scott was being way more cautious.

            • Aatube
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              54 months ago

              firstly I was joking
              secondly, cautious ≠ squeamish. we shouldn’t be setting masculinity as an example

    • ShadowRam
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      44 months ago

      I’m pretty sure they’ve been doing this for years in South America already.

    • @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      Well yes but it does also recharge itself by going downhill while loaded and storing power from regenerative brakes. Then it drops the load and has enough charge to drive back up. The power is coming from it being loaded at the top.

      • @[email protected]
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        24 months ago

        I know how it works. I was making a joke by applying the concept of disposable e-waste junk to a massive dump truck.

        • @[email protected]
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          -14 months ago

          Yes but your comment was in every way indistinguishable from a comment by an idiot who had no idea how it worked, didn’t read the article, and commented an incorrect explanation anyways.

          • @[email protected]
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            14 months ago

            You truly believe someone thought that you would just throw away an entire dump truck when the battery died?

            • @[email protected]
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              14 months ago

              Depends on how easy it is to remove the battery and how many replacement batteries are on the market.

              Also a bit of a ship of theseus issue where if the truck gets refurbished by the company then is it the same truck?

              These things are very large and very few in number. I know nothing about the company behind its production.

              So it is possible.

  • sircac
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    234 months ago

    I cannot avoid to be pedantic on this, it is recharged during half the trip… it just does not require plug-like recharging

    • @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      Yeah another clickbait headline. It’s getting recharged all the time, it’s just very lucky to be in a use case where it goes down hills with large loads all the time

      • @[email protected]
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        24 months ago

        It’s more than a clickbait headline, the first paragraph is just flat out wrong:

        Perhaps best of all, it consumes no energy doing it.

        Obviously it’s consuming energy going uphill. Just because the power source is gravity doesn’t mean it’s not consuming energy.

  • @[email protected]
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    224 months ago

    Till elon finds out that if he manages to cover the sun, he can charge us on sunscription

    • @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      Pretty sure its also not solar. The machine gets loaded with weight at the top of the hill, its regenerative brakes store power on the way down, it drops the load off, and the lightened machine stored enough charge to drive back up.

      • @[email protected]
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        84 months ago

        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

        • Venicone
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          64 months ago

          Must have a cable somewhere as a backup otherwise you’d need a full battery replacement should it ever be discharged.

    • @[email protected]
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      74 months ago

      Gonna go ahead and guess that when designing a 110 ton mega dump truck things are probably pretty front loaded on the planning side of things.

  • @[email protected]
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    104 months ago

    yes it does. just going by the numbers posted operating in the space it does results in a net loss of12% battery each trip.

  • @[email protected]
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    94 months ago

    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.