打一口井。诱发骨折。抽水。开始回流。
这听起来就像过去四分之一个世纪中为数以万计的致密油和气井注入活力所采取的步骤。
但它真正描述的是两家位于休斯敦的公司正在使用的新兴方法，将岩层转变为巨型电池。
抛开差异不谈，Quidnet Energy 和 Sage Geosystems 开发的各自工艺涉及水力压裂垂直井、将水注入裂缝中，以及在高压下将水流回地面以驱动小型工业涡轮机。
Quidnet 成立于 2013 年，是第一个尝试将这一概念商业化的公司，它代表了抽水蓄能水力发电这一非常古老的技术的新变化。
该技术于 1890 年代引入，主要通过将水输送到山上（例如山脉或峡湾）来创建重力辅助能源系统。
Drill a well. Induce a fracture. Pump water. Start flowback.
This sounds like the steps used to bring to life tens of thousands of tight-oil and gas wells over the past quarter century.
But what it really describes is the emerging approach that a pair of Houston-based companies are using to turn rock formations into giant batteries.
Differences aside, the respective processes developed by Quidnet Energy and Sage Geosystems involve hydraulically fracturing vertical wells, injecting water into fractures, and flowing that water back to surface under high pressure to drive a small industrial turbine.
Founded in 2013, Quidnet was the first to try to commercialize this concept which represents a new twist on a very old technology known as pumped storage hydropower.
Introduced in the 1890s, the technique works chiefly by sending water uphill—e.g., a mountain or a fjord—to create a gravity-assisted energy system.
