Swiss-based, global energy storage company specialising in gravity and kinetic energy based, long-duration energy storage products, Energy Vault, announced a new investment from Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV), Aramco’s enterprise investment unit. The Swiss startup will be using the funds to expand the deployment of its technology globally. The breakthrough technology is designed to enable intermittent renewable energy generation to be stored at GW-hour scale both economically and sustainably, to deliver dispatchable power on demand, which is ideal for companies that have 24/7 power needs and are making a transition to clean energy.
Energy Vault’s pioneering technology was inspired by pumped hydro plants that rely on the power of gravity and the movement of water to store and discharge electricity. The fundamentals of the technology uses gravity to move water through custom-made composite blocks through an innovative use of local, low-cost materials and sophisticated material science. The blocks are combined with Energy Vault’s proprietary system design and machine vision, AI-enabled software to operate a specially designed crane which uses proprietary technology to autonomously orchestrate the lifting and lowering of the blocks, thus storing the potential energy at height and then discharging electricity as the blocks are lowered and generating electricity. Importantly, the blocks are made from locally sourced soil, sand or waste materials, including outputs of fossil fuel production, such as coal combustion residuals, and end of life energy components, such as wind blades
“Our mission at SAEV is to invest in companies developing technologies with strategic importance to Aramco. Energy Vault’s innovative energy storage technology has unique environmental and economic benefits. We are excited to help Energy Vault further accelerate the global deployment of its technology,” said Mahdi Aladel, CEO of Aramco Ventures.
To be able to further optimise its energy storage technology platform and address both higher power and variable duration needs, Energy Vault launched EVx, a pioneering product platform that sets a new industry benchmark in energy storage economics. The new platform offers full flexibility in terms of duration because energy and power are decoupled, allowing deployments for both high power/shorter duration needs (2-6 hours) in addition to longer duration storage applications (6-12 hours+).
“Energy Vault has made rapid and meaningful progress over the last 12-18 months as we completed the first commercial-scale deployment of our technology and we are pleased to have SAEV’s support as a strategic partner,” said Robert Piconi, CEO and co-founder, Energy Vault.
