Energy Vault began working with SOM during the last 12 months to optimize the structure, architecture and economics of its GESS technology, which is playing a critical role globally in the deployment of renewable energy.
G-VAULT™, Energy Vault’s family of gravity-based solutions, combines time-tested energy storage principles, modern engineering, an AI-enabled software orchestration platform and cutting-edge materials science to deliver long-duration storage.
G-VAULT products decouple power and energy to enable full customer flexibility to design the optimum storage system while maintaining a leading performance in round trip efficiency versus any other mechanical or thermo-dynamic energy storage systems.
The result is a flexible, low-cost, 35-year (or more) infrastructure asset designed for shifting power delivery without any energy storage medium degradation. Utilizing eco-friendly materials with the ability to integrate waste materials for beneficial reuse, Energy Vault’s gravity-based energy storage technology is facilitating the shift to a circular economy while accelerating the global clean energy transition for its customers.
To date, Energy Vault’s G-VAULT product suite has focused primarily on the EVx™ platform, originally grid connected (5 MW) and tested in Switzerland, which features a highly scalable and modular architecture that can scale to multi-GW-hour storage capacity.
The EVx is currently being developed and deployed via license agreements in China (3.7 GWh announced projects), Egypt, Greece and the 16 country South African Development Community, as previously announced. Through this partnership, Energy Vault and SOM are designing a new platform of G-VAULT GESS solutions focused on improved economics, energy density and sustainability, including EVu™, EVc™, EVy™, and EV0™.
The partnership is led by SOM Partners Adam Semel and Scott Duncan with Structural Engineer Bill Baker. Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading structural engineers, Baker has spent his career crafting elegant solutions to complex structural challenges, from the 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa to the netted installations of artist Janet Echelman. Architects Semel and Duncan have delivered many of SOM’s most impactful recent and upcoming projects, including supertall mixed-use towers across China, the largest private development in Thailand’s history, and a $5B electric vehicle manufacturing campus.
“Since our founding, SOM has pushed the boundaries of architecture and engineering, redefining what buildings can do for cities and communities,” said Semel. “This partnership with Energy Vault is a commitment not only to accelerate the world’s transition away from fossil fuels, but also to explore, together, how the architecture of renewable energy can enhance our shared natural landscapes and urban environments.”