Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships

[YankeeGamer]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

There are issues with superconducting loops, too, when we're talking about Smithian energy storage densities. Our current physics might not allow for any means of duplicating those accumulators, at least the ones in use by Kimball Kinnison's time.

Actually, given that the great powers all have access to total-conversion power plants by KK's time, the only real reason for them to use accumulators at all would be speed of delivery, and maybe emergency backup. Otherwise, you could store your energy in a very safe stable high-density form, i.e. matter. If you've got total conversion tech, you can store energy as something like blocks of lead or other compact material, and not have to worry about accidental discharges or anything else until you need it. Furthermore, your storage density is E=mc^2, so a gram of whatever equals 25 gigawatt-hours. That's pretty good.

That is more than "Pretty good." But Kinnison's ships still had accumulators beyond just power plants. IIRC, they even had them when total conversion was only used as an exciter for "Cosmic Power Screens," a starkly amazing power supply.