EnergyVault to add five new gravity ESS in China with a total capacity of 3.26GWh

Energy Vault Holdings will add five new gravity energy storage systems in China, the company confirmed on November 6.

Last year, Energy Vault broke ground on its first such “EVx” project in partnership with Atlas Renewable and China Tianying (CNTY).

The company revealed that the first 100MWh EVx, next to a wind farm in Rudong, was put into operation in June and is ready to be connected to the grid in September.

Energy Vault said the new projects, also in partnership with Atlas and China Tianying (CNTY), bring the total number of existing and planned EVx deployments in China to seven, with a combined capacity of 3.26GWh.

US-based Atlas supports companies in project transactions with Chinese institutions and regulators, while China Tianying (CNTY) is a Chinese environmental services company.

CNTY Chairman Yan Shengjun said the EVx system will help China's transition to clean energy by enabling intermittent wind and solar power to be used to reduce fossil fuel generation.

Energy Vault uses a tower system (see picture) to store and release renewable energy from wind and solar power. It uses excess renewable energy and builds towers using cranes to store electricity.

When demand rises, the crane opens the tower, creating kinetic energy by lowering the "blocks" so they can turn generators to produce electricity.

The 25-tonne "building blocks" are made from local soil, avoiding the use of carbon-intensive concrete, and can also be constructed from a variety of waste materials such as coal ash, concrete debris, mining tailings and other waste sludge materials that would typically end up in landfill.

Energy Vault said China’s energy policy requires renewable energy plants to integrate energy storage of 20% of their rated power generation for a duration of at least 2-4 hours.

Recently in China, lithium-ion battery energy storage technology has been used extensively to supplement the base storage capacity of pumped storage.

(Source: Energy Vault Global Energy Storage Network, New Energy Network Comprehensive)