Scottish underground energy storage company Gravitricity signed an agreement with Czech electricity flexibility aggregator Nano Energies to develop their gravity storage technology.
Last month the Edinburgh storage firm unveiled plans to transform the former Darkov deep mine in the Czech Republic into a massive gravity energy store. It said this could be a route for projects throughout Europe. Nano said it would be the world’s first underground gravity energy storage facility.
Gravitricity plans to store energy by lowering and raising a single massive weight suspended in the Darkov mine shaft.
Nano Energies delivers energy services across Europe – including Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, as well as the Czech Republic. It brings together a range of electricity sources including cogeneration units, solar parks, biogas and biomass stations or backup generators.
It delivers dispatchable power and other services to Transmission System Operators (TSOs) via a growing network of virtual power plants.
Charlie Blair, Managing Director of Gravitricity said: “We anticipate this will become a commercial blueprint underpinning the financing and rollout of future energy stores Europe-wide.”
In February, Gravitricity signed a memorandum with DIAMO, the Czech state enterprise charged with mitigating the consequences of coal mining in the republic. The two parties committed to seek funds to turn the decommissioned mine into a 4MW/2MWh energy store – equivalent to the power needs of 16,000 homes.
The Edinburgh firm has already demonstrated a scale version of their technology in Edinburgh. It plans to build full-scale schemes in the UK and worldwide. Future multi-weight systems could have a capacity of 25MWh or more.
Worldwide, Gravitricity estimates there are around 14,000 mines which could be suitable for gravity energy storage.
Photo: Darkov Mine, Czech Republic
