Switzerland-based startup Energy Vault has broken ground on two huge facilities in Texas and just north of Shanghai,, to test whether we can store energy by raising and lowering hundreds of 24 metric-ton bricks made of compressed dirt.
It's an elegant concept — and one that, if it works in practice, could bolster the resilience and sustainability of the electric grid while lowering the cost of energy storage. Needless to say, we'll be watching.While it's not the first time Energy Vault has constructed a gravity storage system, the company is hoping to prove its concept works on a much larger scale.
The Chinese facility makes use bricks made of 99 percent compressed dirt, with water and polymer mixed in. By jamming them inside a giant rectangular building, Energy Vault hopes to use a trolley system to transport the bricks to and from an elevator.