Gravity Vault

[dan_b]

Let's store energy by stacking concrete blocks and a crane!

Oh wait, that's dumb. Let's use a giant lift instead.

https://cleanenergyrevolution.co/2023/1 ... -18-hours/

[Mart]

I wasn't sure their revised idea was a goer, till I heard they were going to build this one.

However, that pic looks the same, as I recall, from early this year. I suspect it's my memory playing games, and the building is getting taller, with the blue section surrounding the new work, so what I'm recalling is simply a shorter, earlier pic ...... perhaps?

[Mart]

First one connected to the grid, with three more schemes beginning construction. Overall, nine planned reaching a total of 3.7GWh. Still seems OTT to me - that first project at 25MW/100MWh, is roughly equal to 25 Tesla Megapacks - often the staging area outside Tesla's Lathrop factory has 100's of megapacks ready to ship to storage projects around the world.

Energy Vault China gravity ESS project connected to grid; starts building three others

[AE-NMidlands]

First one connected to the grid, with three more schemes beginning construction. Overall, nine planned reaching a total of 3.7GWh. Still seems OTT to me - that first project at 25MW/100MWh, is roughly equal to 25 Tesla Megapacks - often the staging area outside Tesla's Lathrop factory has 100's of megapacks ready to ship to storage projects around the world.

Energy Vault China gravity ESS project connected to grid; starts building three others

The Rudong project will charge from a nearby wind farm and discharge to the grid while its energy storage medium – composite blocks – will also provide an outlet for CNTY to utilise waste materials like concrete debris and coal ash as part of its waste remediation business.

I wonder whether its economics depend on mopping up (their own) ash and concrete rubble and avoiding disposal costs and maybe taxes too? I don't think ash makes particularly good concrete, and I thought these sort of things needed super-dense concrete to get the best return out of all the civil and mech engineering?

[Mart]

First one connected to the grid, with three more schemes beginning construction. Overall, nine planned reaching a total of 3.7GWh. Still seems OTT to me - that first project at 25MW/100MWh, is roughly equal to 25 Tesla Megapacks - often the staging area outside Tesla's Lathrop factory has 100's of megapacks ready to ship to storage projects around the world.

Energy Vault China gravity ESS project connected to grid; starts building three others

The Rudong project will charge from a nearby wind farm and discharge to the grid while its energy storage medium – composite blocks – will also provide an outlet for CNTY to utilise waste materials like concrete debris and coal ash as part of its waste remediation business.

I wonder whether its economics depend on mopping up (their own) ash and concrete rubble and avoiding disposal costs and maybe taxes too? I don't think ash makes particularly good concrete, and I thought these sort of things needed super-dense concrete to get the best return out of all the civil and mech engineering?

That's a good point Donald Sadoway did say - “If you want to make something dirt-cheap, make it out of dirt. Preferably dirt that's locally sourced.”

So maybe it looks crazy (to me), but is still economically viable?

Could also just be China throwing money and research at every possibility, to see what works, works well, or doesn't work, which is still a good thing in the long run.

[smegal]

This really is colossal.

https://www.energyvault.com/projects/cn-rudong