Gravity-based energy storage will be deployed across China and Asia following a $50 million deal between Swiss-based Energy Vault and US company Atlas Renewable.
The License and Royalty agreement with Atlas, and their majority investor China Tianying, supports the deployment of Energy Vault’s gravity energy storage technology and energy management software platform within mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Construction of the first 100MWh system is expected to begin in Q2 of this year in Rudong, Jiangsu Province located outside of Shanghai.
The agreement represents the first gravity-based storage partnership between a US and Chinese company for the deployment of the technology in China.
The technology lifts large mobile masses into position using excess power from solar, wind, or other power generation facilities and generates electricity by lowering blocks using natural gravitational forces when needed.
The agreement includes terms governing volume-based deployment royalties and covers maintenance, monitoring and the re-use of waste materials within Energy Vault’s composite blocks.
Robert Piconi, CEO and co-founder of Energy Vault, said while entering the China market was not originally a part of their five-year business plan, the global imperative to arrest the growth of [green house gases] in a country which releases the highest amount of CO2 emissions in the world by a factor of two required their action and priority.
He added: “Much like the global COVID pandemic, the climate change crisis knows no borders and compels us to set aside our political biases and unite as a global community to solve this problem.
“What we are announcing represents a first step toward this goal and was achieved through the leadership, courage, fortitude, and humility of all those involved.”
