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Similar concept is already in use with hydroelectric power generation. It's called pumped-storage hydroelectricity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...

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Indeed, I was about to point this out. I visited the Drankensberg one[1] in South Africa a few years back. It's amazing how big the complex was for such a simple concept (if memory serves me correctly the turbines were 50 or so stories underground).

I'm very interested to see if graphene supercapacitors may eventually have a role to play here. Using gravity seems a bit "primitive".

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakensberg_Pumped_Storage_Sche...

And it seems to work even better submerged: http://phys.org/news/2013-05-storage-power-seabed.html

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