The Middle East is home to some territories that are characterized by their great architectural projects. Some of them are raising heated controversies, such as the longest city in the world in the desert. But this time, the company that built the Burj Khalifa has announced an ambitious project to build 1 km high batteries to take advantage of the force of gravity.
The 1 km high batteries
The company Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), who made history by designing Dubai’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, has announced that it is planning to partner with a Swedish startup dedicated to renewable energy for a project that exceeds imagination. In their collaboration with Energy Vault Holdings, they seek to combine architecture with gravity storage (GESS) technology.
Energy Vault Holdings is a startup created in 2017 that has developed an innovative technology to produce and store energy through a system that lifts heavy blocks to great heights and then drops them. Thanks to this simple and effective solution, they aim to offer the world a new alternative for clean generators that do not depend on chemical batteries.
The project that unites these two firms involves building kilometer-high batteries that will be used as gigantic skyscrapers. The building would have a hollow structure that would generate energy by taking advantage of the force of gravity. As reported by Energy Vault Holdings, the proposal includes two alternatives that could generate several gigawatts of clean and renewable electricity.
A revolution in clean energy
The EVu project proposes a high-rise structure that will consist of a hollow space through which weight will be dropped from a height of 1000 meters. A crane system powered by alternative energies such as solar or wind will be responsible for lifting heavy blocks of abundant local materials, and then releasing them when the surrounding structure or buildings require a greater amount of energy.
On the other hand, the Swedish company also offers an EVc system, which instead of using solid blocks, would pump water to the top of the gigantic building and would drop it to activate a turbine at the end of the journey. This type of system has already been implemented in different power generating plants that drop water from a mountain or some other type of high terrain.
Each of the alternatives has its pros and cons, the choice will depend on what is most viable according to the characteristics of the building that is still in the development phase. The most interesting thing is that in any case it is a high-capacity clean energy source, which could supply not only this structure, but also several surrounding ones without depending on fossil fuels.
Technical and economic challenges
The project is still being studied to determine its feasibility and possible impact. Adapting a structure designed to generate electricity as a habitable building will not be an easy task. The height of the architectural project alone represents an enormous challenge which will require a significant investment to be stable and comply with all regulations.
To this must be added the maintenance costs that these imposing 1 km batteries would imply, together with the budget of any office or residential building.
The energy of the future
Gravity energy storage (GESS) is a promising technology that is already gaining attention around the world. Without going any further, Capital Energy is about to install a controversial GESS energy plant in Spain. If these new 1 km high batteries come to fruition, it could open a door to sustainable high-rise urban construction.
