Skidmore, Owings & Merrill , an engineering and architecture firm that's also worked on the One World Trade Center, is partnering with energy storage startupto build "gravity energy storage systems" that lift and lower massive blocks of recycled waste materials to provide electricity when it's needed the most.
It's a deceptively simple idea: during periods of excess renewable energy production, the facility's cranes can store large amounts of power — and then release it by lowering them back down and spinning up a generator, when demand is high and the energy supply is low. "The combination of our pioneering work in gravity energy storage technology with the global track record and expertise of the most widely renowned engineering, design, and architecture firm in the world will provide the first platform toward delivering accelerated carbon payback in building construction and operation for the first time," said Energy Vauly CEO Robert Piconi in aEnergy Vault has already proven that its crane and waste blocks platform can be scaled up to store several...
But despite having several projects underway, Energy Vault still has plenty to prove. Could the same idea really be scaled up to meet our ever-growing demands? While it's a clever engineering solution, the devil, as always, is in the details.