By LUO Rong
A new power plant in Jiangsu Province has entered the testing phase and is expected to be connected to the grid in the fourth quarter of this year. With a budget of 1 billion yuan (US$140 million), it is said to be the world's first utility-scale commercial gravity storage power plant.
The project features the EVx gravity energy storage system developed by US-based Energy Vault (EV). The EVx uses clean energy such as wind power to lift raised heavy "gravity" blocks, converting electrical energy into potential energy for storage in much the same way as some hydro projects pump water for the same purpose.
During peak demand, the blocks are allowed to descend and the kinetic energy released is used to generate electricity. The blocks can be made of various waste materials, including fly ash, discarded wind turbine blades, and household waste. The blocks are not changed in any way during the process.
According to Sealand Securities, the cost of gravity storage is more than pumped-hydro and less than lithium-ion, approximately 0.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour. Unlike pumped-hydro, currently, the most economical and dominant energy storage solution, gravity storage is still in its early stages of development, and the competitive landscape has yet to take shape.
The project is funded by Chian Tianying Group (CNTY), whose main business is power generation through incineration of waste disposal. It is the only player in China that possesses gravity-storage technology.
In 2022, CNTY achieved revenue of 6.7 billion yuan, less than a third of the amount made the previous year, with a hugely disappointing net profit of only 123 million yuan.
