gravity-based storage

The partnership will see architecture and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), responsible for some of the world’s tallest buildings, incorporate Energy Vault’s gravity energy storage technology into tall buildings in urban environments and deployable structures in natural environments.

Energy Vault and Enel have revealed plans to build 18 MW/36 MWh of gravity storage in the United States. They say that the project will be the first large-scale gravity energy storage in a Western country.

Baud Resources, a clean-tech startup, has developed a gravity energy storage mechanism that uses locally available materials such as sand and industrial waste as its payload. The company is building a 100 MWh pilot plant that will reportedly offer a levelized cost of storage of around INR 2.5 ($0.03)/kWh.

Green Gravity, an Australian energy storage startup, says it will explore opportunities to deploy its gravitational energy storage technology in Europe, after signing an agreement with Romanian state-owned energy producer Complexul Energetic Valea Jiului SA.

Researchers in Morocco have created a new energy management system that allows the combination of rooftop PV with gravity storage. The proposed system is reportedly able to perform smart energy distribution within a household while also lowering electricity costs.

Energy Vault has started commissioning a 25 MW/100 MWh energy storage facility adjacent to a wind power facility near Shanghai.

Australian renewables startup Green Gravity has teamed with underground mining contractor RUC to accelerate the commercialization of its gravitational energy storage tech.

Developed by Chinese researchers, the novel hybrid storage technology may achieve an efficiency of over 80% and be applied in distribution and transmission grids. The proposed combination is reportedly able to offer the advantages of gravity energy storage and power-based storage systems in a single solution.

Scotland’s Gravitricity is developing gravity-based storage facilities in former mine shafts to stabilize electricity networks at 50 Hz, by responding to full power demand in less than a second. CEO Charlie Blair speaks to pv magazine about the potential and limitations of the tech, and how it compares to lithium-ion battery storage.

Robert Piconi, CEO of gravity storage specialist Energy Vault, makes the case for the US company’s long-duration energy storage solutions as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries, and discusses the ideal project size from an economic perspective.