Using gravity to transform supertall buildings into energy storage systems

After starting commissioning of the world’s first gravity energy storage system, located next to a wind farm near Shanghai, Energy Vault plans to implement this innovative concept in supertall buildings around the world.

The new gravitational energy storage systems are to be developed in collaboration with Chicago-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), which plans to design buildings up to a mile tall.

The innovative solution used by Energy Vault uses Earth’s gravity and kinetic energy: excess renewable energy is used to lift massive composite blocks, and then, if necessary, the blocks are dropped, and their kinetic energy spins generators to produce electricity.

SOM designed the world’s tallest building, the 830-meter Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai.

Energy Vault offers more gravity storage solutions

As part of the agreement with Energy Vault, SOM will be the exclusive designer of new Energy Vault gravity energy storage systems (GESS), which will use the technology in high-rise buildings in urban areas and structures that can be deployed in natural environments.

The cooperation has been going on for a year and includes four new Energy Vault GESS solutions. These solutions include the EVu system, a tower that enables the integration of a gravity energy storage system in high-rise buildings through hollow structures in spaces with a height of over 300 meters to 1,000 meters.

The storage capacity could reach several gigawatts, which could power the building itself as well as nearby structures.

The China facility could come online by the end of 2024

Other new solutions developed by Energy Vault include EVc, a cylinder-shaped pumped hydro structure for high-rise buildings, EVy, which has been designed with existing slopes and terrain in mind, and EV0, which takes advantage of the advantages of pumped storage hydro, but without the need for a concrete structure and disturbing the environment.

The solution already implemented in China is called EVx, and Energy Vault, together with partners Atlas Renewable and China Tianying, announced that they will connect the facility to the grid in the fourth quarter of this year.

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