A high-capacity energy storage solution is needed to capture clean energy and release it when demand exceeds supply. Massive electrochemical batteries are one possibility, but battery technology has limitations related to cost and durability.
British start-up company Gravitricity has developed a system to store excess electricity by using the power of gravity.
The company’s power supply system uses a series of winches to store electrical energy as potential energy by raising large weights in a vertical shaft. When energy is needed, the weights can be released and the winches can be turned into electrical generators.
Gravitricity was developed by inventor Peter Franco, who also produced the first full-scale tidal energy turbine.
What is Gravity-Based Energy Storage?
Gravity-based energy storage is an evolution of pumped hydro storage (PHS) technologies, which can store large quantities of energy using the mass of water at different elevations.
PHS systems are only economically viable as massive operations due to installation costs. For instance, the cost of a PHS tunnel doubles when it doubles in diameter. However, a tunnel twice the width quadruples the quantity of water that can pass through it, boosting the storage capacity of the system.
How does the Gravitricity System Work?
Rather than a series of tunnels and pumps, the Gravitricity system is based on a vertical shaft up to 1500 meters deep with weight configurations ranging from 500 to 5000 tonnes.
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