Grid-scale energy storage company Energy Vault Holdings and architecture and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have announced the formation of a global exclusive gravity energy storage partnership.
SOM is responsible for designing many of the world’s best-known and tallest buildings, including Burj Khalifa, Tianjin CTF Finance Centre, Willis Tower and One World Trade Center. As part of the new partnership, it will be the exclusive architect and structural engineer for the next generation of fixed frames and deployable structures for all new Energy Vault gravity energy storage systems (GESSs), including incorporating gravity energy storage technology into tall buildings in urban environments and deployable structures in natural environments, to maximise sustainability, accelerate carbon payback and lower the levelised cost of energy consumption. During the past year, Energy Vault began working with SOM to optimise the structure, architecture and economics of its GESS technology.
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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. According to the company, its use of eco-friendly materials, with the ability to integrate waste materials for beneficial reuse, means that its 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 Company’s 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. Through the new partnership, Energy Vault and SOM are designing a new platform of G-VAULT GESS solutions focused on improved economics, energy density and sustainability.
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‘We are extremely pleased to begin this exclusive global partnership with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, a firm with an unparalleled track record in developing some of the world’s most remarkable structures,’ said Robert Piconi, chairman and CEO of Energy Vault. ‘Our strategic partnership with SOM opens a new multi-billion-dollar market segment for Energy Vault focused on the future of sustainability in new building design and energy efficiency. The combination of our pioneering work in gravity energy storage technology with the global track record and expertise of the most widely renowned engineering, design and architecture firm in the world will provide the first platform toward delivering accelerated carbon payback in building construction and operation for the first time.’
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-metre-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 US$5billion electric vehicle manufacturing campus.
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‘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. Given the transformative nature of Energy Vault’s technology, we’re especially excited to launch this unique, global partnership.’
In 2023, Energy Vault announced the commissioning of the first EVx gravity storage system in China. Energy Vault also recently announced three additional EVx GESS deployments of 368 MWh in China in early 2022, bringing the total announced projects in China to 3.7 GWh.