Startup Energy Vault Is Closer to Finishing Gravity Storage Project in China

(Bloomberg) -- California startup Energy Vault Holdings Inc. is nearing completion of its first major power-storage project, one of the only systems in the world to generate electricity using gravity.

The project in Rudong, China, north of Shanghai, will be finished by September, Chief Executive Officer Robert Piconi said Wednesday in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters. It will be able to deliver as much as 25 megawatts of power for four hours.

Energy Vault uses electric motors to elevate heavy blocks that weigh as much as 35 tons. That creates potential energy that can be converted later into electricity when they’re lowered to the ground. The concept is similar to widely used pumped-hydroelectric plants. Piconi said his technology is the first to provide an alternative long-duration storage system based on gravity.

“There’s just not that much energy storage available now,” he said. “Gravity storage will play a very important role in long-duration storage.”

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