Energy Vault company, with its partners Atlas Renewable and China Tianying (CNTY), has announced that the world’s first grid-scale EVx gravity energy storage system (GESS) has entered the first commissioning phases.
Energy Vault is a Swiss-based, global energy storage company specializing in gravity and kinetic energy-based, long-duration energy storage products. Its innovative technology portfolio provides customized short and long-term energy storage solutions to help utilities, independent power producers, and large industrial energy users significantly reduce energy costs while maintaining energy reliability. Energy Vault’s EVx gravity-based energy storage technology is helping the shift to a circular economy while accelerating the global clean energy transition.
The first-of-its-kind, 100 MWh EVx GESS project was announced in May 2022.
The new Gravity Energy Storage System (GESS) has a capacity of 25 MW, and the EVx system will be one of the world’s largest long-term energy storage systems. It is constructed adjacent to a wind farm and national grid interconnection site to augment and balance China’s national energy grid through renewable energy storage and distribution in Rudong, Jiangsu Province, China.
A new ultra-efficient and on-power electronics ribbon lifting system started commissioning in June. Now this project has entered the first phase of implementation. The system is expected to be fully grid interconnected at the end of the year, as planned with local state grid authorities, making EVx the world’s first commercial, utility-scale, non-pumped hydro gravity energy storage system.
The grid-scale gravity energy storage system offers a more cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable alternative to existing pumped hydropower plants that currently represent approximately 90% of all energy storage capacity globally.
The first 5 MW EV1 tower grid-interconnected in Switzerland in the mid-2020s has excellent round trip efficiency (RTE) results (over 75%). The new Energy Vault’s EVx system is expected to have an RTE of more than 80% with its efficiency chain design improvements, making the new gravity system a leader in energy storage efficiency compared to all other types of mechanical, thermodynamic processes, compressed air, or flow battery systems.
