World’s first EVx gravity energy storage system begins operations in China

Gravity-based energy storage solutions provider, Energy Vault announced that the world's first grid-scale gravity energy storage system EVx has entered the first phase of commissioning in Jiangsu Province, China.

The 25 MW/100 MWh EVx gravity energy storage system has been developed next to a wind farm and China's national grid interconnection site to boost and balance the energy grid through the storage and delivery of renewable energy.

"Happy to share our continued progress and a critical milestone achieved with our partners Atlas Renewable and China Tianying related to commencement of commissioning activities of the world's first EVx gravity energy storage system," said Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Energy Vault.

"While this represents a significant milestone, our work in China is just beginning given recent local announcements of multi-GW hours of gravity energy storage buildouts, including projects announced in 2022 supporting China's "Zero-carbon parks" initiative with Energy Vault's gravity energy storage technology. Look forward to sharing more on this first EVx deployment and our planned future gravity technology deployments globally as we see increasing demand for longer duration energy storage."

While the commissioning on the power electronics and new ultra-efficient "ribbon" lifting systems began in June, the new EVx system is expected to be fully grid interconnected in Q4 with local state grid authorities, making EVx the world's first commercial, utility scale non-pumped hydro gravity energy storage system, Energy Vault stated.

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The new EVx system builds on round trip efficiency (RTE) results (above 75%) of the first 5 MW EV1 Tower that was grid interconnected in Switzerland in mid-2020 -- with efficiency chain design enhancements expected to bring RTE above 80%.

This efficiency places the new gravity system as a leader in energy storage efficiency versus all other forms of mechanical, thermodynamic processes, compressed air or flow battery systems, Energy Vault claims.

"This milestone could not have been achieved without the unprecedented collaboration between the collective teams in the U.S. and China, as the world's two largest economies have joined forces to meaningfully address climate change," said Eric Fang, Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Renewable."

This first deployment of Energy Vault's EVx technology will serve as a model for global decarbonization technology partnerships, and we are already working on multi-GWh deployments of Energy Vault's gravity technology in China to support and ideally accelerate China's current 30-60 net carbon neutral plans, Fang added.