How Skyscrapers Could Be Our Answer to Energy Storage
The U.S. battery storage sector has been growing rapidly since 2021, with storage capacity projected to increase by almost 90% by the end of 2024. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), developers are on track to expand U.S. battery capacity to more than 30 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2024, surpassing those of petroleum liquids, geothermal, wood and wood waste, or landfill gas. To wit, Calpine’s California battery plant will bring online 620 MW in two phases this year starting in the summer, making it one of the world’s largest battery storage plants. However, as encouraging as these trends are for the clean energy sector, lithium-ion batteries still pale in comparison to a much older technology: Pumped Storage Hydropower or PSH. According to the Department of Energy, the U.S. is home to 43 PSH systems, accounting for 96% of the country’s utility-scale energy storage.
And now one little-known company is developing “dry” pumped hydro storage facilities comparable to PSH but using massive blocks instead of water. Westlake Village, California-based Energy Vault Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:NRGV) has just completed the world’s first GESS (Gravity Energy Storage System) facility near Shanghai. The facility is sited adjacent to a wind farm and has a 25 MW / 100 MWh capacity, meaning it’s capable of supplying 25 MW of electricity to the grid for 4 hours at a time. This maiden facility has been built using Energy Vault’s EVx system which uses excess renewable energy to lift massive composite blocks then lower them when needed to spin generators to supply electricity to the grid. The company says its EVx design can achieve a respectable round-trip efficiency (RTE) of over 80%. According to Energy Vault’s CEO Robert Piconi, the company’s current systems can provide energy for about five to 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, considerably cheaper than lithium-ion batteries, which come in at about 13.5 cents, according to BloombergNEF. Piconi says that the company is aiming for a Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) lower than 5 cents per kWh. Related: Oil Prices Shed Over 3% As Market Digests OPEC+ Move
