{"id":171066,"date":"2023-09-01T10:24:58","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T15:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/energy-vaults-first-grid-scale-gravity-energy-storage-system-is-near-complete"},"modified":"2023-09-01T10:24:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T15:24:58","slug":"energy-vaults-first-grid-scale-gravity-energy-storage-system-is-near-complete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/energy-vaults-first-grid-scale-gravity-energy-storage-system-is-near-complete","title":{"rendered":"Energy Vault\u2019s First Grid-Scale Gravity Energy Storage System Is Near Complete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dQSOj-LfaSE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The system is like a solid version of pumped hydro, which uses surplus generating capacity to pump water uphill into a reservoir. When the water\u2019s released it flows down through turbines, making them spin and generate energy.<\/p>\n<p>Energy Vault\u2019s solid gravity system uses huge, heavy blocks made of concrete and composite material and lifts them up in the air with a mechanical crane. The cranes are powered by excess energy from the grid, which might be created on very sunny or windy days when there\u2019s not a lot of demand. The blocks are suspended at elevation until supply starts to fall short of demand, and when they\u2019re lowered down their weight pulls cables that spin turbines and generate electricity.<\/p>\n<p>Because concrete is denser than water, it takes more energy to elevate it, but that means it\u2019s storing more energy too. The cranes are controlled by a proprietary software that automates most aspects of the system, from selecting blocks to raise or lower to balancing out any swinging motion that happens in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The system is like a solid version of pumped hydro, which uses surplus generating capacity to pump water uphill into a reservoir. When the water\u2019s released it flows down through turbines, making them spin and generate energy. Energy Vault\u2019s solid gravity system uses huge, heavy blocks made of concrete and composite material and lifts them [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,1635,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-materials","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}