Founded in 2017, Switzerland-based Energy Vault uses a block tower system to store and release renewable energy from wind and solar operations.
Using software to assess when electricity demand is low, it uses excess renewable energy to essentially store the energy by building thetower with a crane. When demand increases, the crane unstacks the tower, producing kinetic energy by dropping the blocks so they can spin generators and create electricity.
- In 2018, Energy Vault secured Series A funding from NeoTribe Ventures.
- In 2019, Energy Vault secured mezzanine funding fromCemex in May, before securing $110 million in Series B funding to become the first energy storage investment from SoftBank Vision Fund.
- This follows a recent $100m Series C private financing round led by Prime Movers Lab, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 1 and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, among others.
In 2020, Energy Vault was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum because it offers a cost-effective way to store clean energy and provide dispatchable power.
Energy Vault plans to go public in the first quarter of 2022 through a merger with an SPAC.
The combination with Novus Capital would value the green energy storage company at $1.6bn, according to a joint press release.
« We are excited to announce our combination with Novus and look forward to going public given our recent advances in commercial-scale technology validation and rapid customer adoption, which require additional capital to meet global andmulti-continental demand, » Energy Vault co-founder and CEO Robert Piconi said in the press release.
« As we now focus on the execution and deployment phase of the technology, we are excited to (partner) with the Novus team who fully support our decarbonisation mission and bring deep experience in developing the market for new technologies on a global scale, » Piconi said.
Energy Vault uses gravity to store and release renewable energy on demand, with the aim of accelerating global decarbonisation.
Energy Vault believes that while demand for clean energy like wind and solar is booming worldwide, with renewables expected to become 90% of total energy generation by 2050, current storage solutions are inefficient.
For instance pumped hydro, which is approximately 90% of the current global storage capacity market, and chemical batteries, both face significant challenges of scalability along with safety and environmental risks.
Grid-scale energy storage capacity will need to increase tenfold in the next 10 years and this will require more than $270bn of investment over that timeframe.
Energy Vault has developed a gravity energy storage platform that is designed to be cost-efficient and safe to operate plus environmentally sustainable.
