Proponents say gravity-based methods may assist meet demand for long-duration storage. However there’s additionally skepticism about the way forward for the strategy, since they’ll require lots of work to construct, they usually could be harder to keep up than anticipated. EnergyVault is making progress on a deliberate facility in China, although the corporate has additionally been deploying lots of lithium-ion battery installations lately.

The large squeeze

Let’s return to highschool physics yet one more time for one more idea: strain. Should you squeeze one thing right into a smaller area, you’re elevating the strain.

Turning that strain into usable vitality is the thought behind compressed-air vitality storage. All you want is an underground salt cavern. If you’ve bought electrical energy you might want to use, you possibly can run pumps to push air contained in the cavern. Then, when you might want to get vitality out, simply launch a valve and let the escaping air spin a turbine to generate electrical energy once more. 

There are solely a few these amenities working worldwide, one in Germany and one other in Alabama. Previously, they’ve been tied up with fossil fuels, since they normally work alongside natural-gas energy vegetation. However now corporations need to reimagine compressed-air storage, utilizing it for renewables and increasing the place it may be used. 

Earlier this yr, native governments in California signed contracts with Hydrostor, which is constructing what could be the world’s largest compressed-air storage facility. As an alternative of counting on pure geological circumstances, Hydrostor will drill three shafts deep into the earth to retailer the compressed air. 

It’s a billion-dollar venture, and it could possibly be working as quickly as 2028 to retailer vitality and assist easy out California’s grid utilizing nothing however air. 

Different teams need to take a unique strategy to the identical idea. Vitality Dome, an Italian startup, needs to compress carbon dioxide as an alternative of air to retailer vitality. This wouldn’t require giant underground storage caverns in any respect—for extra on the main points right here, try my story from final yr on Vitality Dome.

Earth to battery

Some teams are additionally seeking to pair these new approaches to vitality storage with efforts to generate electrical energy, making new energy vegetation extra versatile.