This looks like an awesome initiative! I think it will be very valuable for people trying to enter the field. I particularly like the clear advice on how to get started doing RL research. Have you considered setting up a forum for the community to share their experiences?
I was wondering if it would be possible, perhaps, instead of using cranes to stack blocks of stones, to elevate an entire building by some small amount every day when there is enough excess energy. Lowering the building in the night to recover some of the stored energy. This would definitely be a very challenging engineering problem but the thought of transforming each house in a city into a battery using only its own potential energy without being dependent on chemical means of storage is intriguing to me.
I was about to post the exact same idea. I don't know if it would be efficient (plus mechanicaly lifting up a building is an engineering nightmare to do) but it would be a very elegant way of storing solar energy, or energy recovered from lost calories.
