The world's first grid-level gravity energy storage project will be connected to the grid within the year
The world's first grid-scale commercial gravity energy storage power station has entered the commissioning stage.
On August 1, Energy Vault (hereinafter referred to as EV), a gravity energy storage technology company, announced that the Jiangsu Rudong gravity energy storage demonstration project has entered the commissioning stage and is expected to be connected to the grid in the fourth quarter of this year.
With a total investment of 1 billion yuan, a construction scale of 100 MWh and a power generation capacity of 25 MW, the project will become the world's first grid-level commercial gravity energy storage power station.
The project is invested by Jiangsu Nengying, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Tianying (000035.SZ), and EV will provide gravity energy storage systems and technologies. EV is a Swiss-based energy storage company specializing in gravity and kinetic energy-based energy storage products.
The Rudong gravity energy storage project introduces the second-generation EV gravity energy storage system EVx, and the main body of the project is an energy storage tower. Its working principle is to use offshore wind power, photovoltaic wind power and other clean energy to lift the gravity block, convert the electric energy into potential energy for storage, and then put down the gravity block when the power consumption peaks, and use gravity to do work to generate electricity. Gravity blocks come from a variety of waste materials, including fly ash, wind power waste blades, household waste, etc.
Gravity energy storage is a kind of mechanical energy storage, which has the characteristics of economy, environmental protection and safety, mainly including gravity energy storage based on the height difference of the structure, gravity energy storage based on the mountain drop and gravity energy storage based on underground shafts.
According to Guohai Securities, the cost of EV gravity energy storage technology is between pumped storage and lithium battery energy storage, with a cost of about 0.5 yuan/KWh, a service life of 30-35 years, and a conversion efficiency of 83%-85%.
Pumped hydro storage is currently the most economical and market share of electric energy storage technology. According to the Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2023, a total of 237.2 GW of electric energy storage will be put into operation globally in 2022, and the cumulative installed capacity of pumped storage will account for nearly 80%.
According to a report by East Asia Qianhai Securities, the new gravity energy storage industry is in the early stage of development, and the competitive landscape has not yet taken shape. At present, there are four main companies in the industrialization of new gravity energy storage, namely EV in Switzerland, Gravity Power and ARES in the United States, and Gravitricity in Scotland, and most of the company's projects are in the stage of conception or proposal.
As an investor in the Rudong gravity energy storage project, China Tianying is vigorously developing gravity energy storage. In February 2022, China Tianying obtained the authorization of EV gravity energy storage technology and began to enter the energy storage market. At present, it is the only company in China that has gravity energy storage technology and is building large-scale commercial projects.
China Tianying has successively signed a number of strategic cooperation framework agreements for gravity energy storage projects in Tongliao, Bijie, Urad Zhongqi and other places, with a total installed capacity of more than 4 GWh. In June this year, its wholly-owned subsidiary, Jiangsu Nengying, also reached an agreement with Huailai County in Hebei Province to build the world's first gravity energy storage project serving data centers, with an installed capacity of 100 MWh.
China Tianying was founded in 2006 and successfully listed on the backdoor in 2014. The main business includes solid waste disposal business based on waste incineration power generation, urban environmental services, environmental protection equipment manufacturing and new energy business. In 2022, China Tianying will achieve operating income of 6.707 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 67.43%, and a net profit of 123 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 83.13%.
