Gravity Energy Storage Technology

Solutions

Gravity Energy Storage

Energy Vault’s gravity energy storage solutions harness the fundamental principles of gravity and kinetic energy to store and dispatch energy by lifting and lowering composite bricks or “mobile masses” made from recycled and locally sourced materials. Energy Vault’s breakthrough technology was inspired by pumped hydro plants that rely on the power of gravity and the movement of water to store and discharge electricity. The company’s solution is based on the same well-understood fundamentals of physics and mechanical engineering used in those plants but replaces water with custom-made composite bricks through an innovative use of local, low-cost materials and sophisticated material science.

The system uses proprietary technology to autonomously orchestrate the lifting and lowering of the bricks, storing the potential energy in the elevation gain, and generating then discharging electricity as the bricks are lowered. Importantly, the bricks are made from locally sourced soil, sand, or waste materials, including outputs of fossil fuel production, such as coal combustion residuals, and end of life energy components, such as wind blades.

Technologies

Transforming the World’s Approach to Energy Storage

EV_x™ sets a new industry benchmark in energy storage economics. Modular by design, the EV_x™ further optimizes gravity storage in a flexible design to address both higher power and custom duration needs.

Energy Vault actively works with the largest utilities and energy companies in the world to optimize our energy storage platform to improve flexibility and address our customers’ evolving duration needs for both higher power and custom duration storage requirements. The resulting EV_x™ platform sets a new industry benchmark in energy storage economics. The EV_x™ product platform introduces a highly scalable and modular architecture that can be built out in 10MWh increments that can scale to multi-GW-hour storage capacity. EV_x™ is the natural evolution that leverages all current performance attributes of Energy Vault’s proven technology including zero degradation in storage medium, high round-trip efficiency, long technical life, a sustainable supply chain, and composite brick.

Modular solution is economically viable for both short (2-4 hours) and long (4-12+ hours) durations.
Resilient to harsh conditions & high ambient operating temperatures with no chemical fire risk.

Built to meet international building standards with local supply chain and employment sourcing to eliminate production bottlenecks.
No performance reduction over time; mechanical components & mobile masses fundamentally cannot degrade.

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Energy Vault Resiliency Center™ (EVRC™) is a gigawatt hour scale product line designed to address grid resiliency needs to manage energy disruptive climate events such as wildfire or extreme weather.

The Energy Vault Resiliency Center™ is a highly scalable and modular system architecture that is built to scale to manage energy disruptive climate events such as wildfire or extreme weather. Using the EV_x™ design as a building block, the EVRC™ can be built out in 10MWh increments that can scale to multi-GW-hour storage capacity.

Importantly, the new platform is 40 percent lower in height and utilizes the same composite block weights that can be made from waste and remediation material for beneficial re-use, such as coal combustion residuals (coal ash), fiberglass from de-commissioned wind turbine blades and waste tailings from mining processes.

Modular solution is economically viable for both short (2-4 hours) and long (4-12+ hours) durations.
Resilient to harsh conditions & high ambient operating temperatures with no chemical fire risk.

Built to meet international building standards with local supply chain and employment sourcing to eliminate production bottlenecks.
No performance reduction over time; mechanical components & mobile masses fundamentally cannot degrade.

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The Energy Vault Customer Demonstration Unit (CDU) is a full-scale installation in Castione, Switzerland, that is based on our first generation, utility-scale gravity-based energy storage system.

The Energy Vault Commercial Demonstration Unit (CDU) combines innovative design, advanced materials science, and proprietary machine-vision software to lift and lower composite bricks and orchestrate the storage and dispatch of electrical power. In July of 2020, Energy Vault completed mechanical construction of the first of its kind, grid-scale unit located in Switzerland (Ticino). This commercial scale system is part of Energy Vault’s technology roadmap that follows the 1:4 scale pilot system built and operated in 2018, where all core technology elements were tested and validated. The CDU is connected to the Swiss national utility grid and is being utilized for continued testing and software commissioning.

Proven Science
Flexible-Modular-Scalable

Connected to the Swiss National Grid
Ongoing Testing and software commissions

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COMMERCIAL DEMONSTRATION UNIT

EV1 TOWER

In July of 2020, Energy Vault completed mechanical construction of the first of its kind, grid scale EV1 Tower Commercial Demonstration Unit (CDU) located in Switzerland (Ticino). This commercial scale system is part of Energy Vault’s technology roadmap that follows the 1:4 scale pilot system built and operated in 2018, where all core technology elements were tested and validated. The EV1 CDU is connected to the Swiss national utility grid and under final testing and software commissioning.

CDU PHOTO GALLERY

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is gravity storage?

Gravity storage refers to the use of energy to place objects at height that are then lowered under natural “gravitational” force to create physical movements which turn mechanical motors and create electricity that can be dispatched to the grid. Inspired by the widespread use of pumped hydro - where excess electricity pumps water up a dam and is then released to drive a turbine to create electricity - Energy Vault’s storage system relies on the elegant power of gravity to store and release kinetic energy.

How does the Energy Vault system work?

During periods when electricity generation from renewables exceeds the grid demand, Energy Vault utilizes this electricity to power Energy Vault’s proprietary crane system to lift composite bricks that are assembled and stacked by autonomous software; this is especially useful during periods of high renewable generation but low demand as is the case with solar PV.
When the bricks are stacked at height, the system is fully “charged”, with each of the bricks representing ~1MW of potential energy to be discharged when needed. When power is needed, the software orchestrates the sequential lowering of the bricks thus creating electricity through the kinetic energy released from weight turning large motors that generate and dispatch electrical energy.

What are the advantages of Energy Vault over chemical batteries?

Energy Vault has 5 key advantages over chemical batteries:
- Energy Vault provides an economical advantage over chemical batteries and does not rely on uncertain future chemical roadmaps and future reductions in cost.
- Energy Vault storage medium and mechanics fundamentally do not degrade over time.
- Energy Vault’s sustainable production design uses of locally sourced materials, including the ability to use waste materials that would otherwise be landfilled. Chemical batteries are future landfill liabilities and are hazardous materials.
- Energy Vault is immediately scalable due to developed and existing global supply chain ecosystem of large suppliers, local site assembly/fabrication and not competing for scarce resources (i.e. lithium ion).

Where can Energy Vault be deployed?

Energy Vault’s system is suitable to most industrial and non-urban or suburban locations. Locations will be primarily collocated with PV Solar, Wind and other industrial/manufacturing sites where larger structures and broad landscapes that are not densely populated are common.

What is most distinctive about Energy Vault’s technology?

Energy Vault delivers all of the sustainability and simplicity of pumped hydro storage with greater flexibility. Energy Vault can deliver all the benefits of a large scale pumped hydro storage system, but at a much lower levelized cost, higher roundtrip efficiency and without the requirement for specific land topography and negative environmental impacts. Most distinctive to Energy Vault’s solution is our unique approach to the circular economy which incorporates utilization of local industrial and energy waste (such as remunerated coal ash and recycled wind blades) converted to recyclable materials to build the system’s composite bricks.

Transforming Utility Scale
Energy Storage