Startup Raises $100 Million to Store Energy in Giant Hanging Bricks
Another Brick in the Wall
A renewable energy startup has secured a massive amount of funding for a bold plan: Store and create clean energy by dropping bricks from really, really high up.
Energy Vault, a Switzerland- and California-based company, has secured $100 million in series C funding for the bold vision, according to PV Magazine. The company now plans to use the money to help deploy their brick-dropping platform across the US, Middle East, Europe, and Australia, said a press release from the company.
Brick Battery
The way the platform works is actually pretty ingenious: 35-metric ton bricks are lifted up a 35-story tower. When energy requirements are low, the bricks are dropped to the ground and the kinetic energy it produces is captured in a generator that can be used on a strained energy grid.
The idea is simple and — if Energy Vault is to be believed — a great way to produce clean energy that doesn’t have to rely on wind, water, or sunlight to generate electricity.
“The world is at a critical inflection point in the shift towards broader adoption of renewable energy sources,” said Robert Piconi, CEO and co-founder of Energy Vault, in the press release. “Energy Vault is accelerating this transformation as we now move to global deployments and market adoption of the technology to help energy providers and industrial customers more cost-effectively meet their sustainability and decarbonization goals.”
Will It Catch On?
In April 2021, the company released its new EVx platform, which boasts a modular design capable of providing short power durations (two to four hours) or longer power durations (five to 24 hours).
Now with a $100 million windfall, Energy Vault hopes to take the EVx platform global — and eventually have it be widely embraced by the market.
At first blush, it’s easy to look at something like the brick-dropping platform as more of a gimmick than anything else. However, there’s no denying that if it works as planned, it can provide an entirely new avenue of green energy that doesn’t rely on things like dams, which can have a harmful effect on ecosystems.
READ MORE: Gravity-based renewable energy storage tower for grid-scale operations [PV Magazine]
More on brick batteries: Giant Hanging Bricks Could Store Energy Better Than Batteries
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