Energy storage start-up Gravitricity has teamed up with lifting, drilling and subsea specialist Huisman to develop a scale demonstrator of its innovative gravity-fed energy storage system.
The Edinburgh green tech firm has signed an R&D agreement with the Dutch multinational to develop a 250 kW concept demonstrator and test it in the Netherlands and Scotland early next year. Following this, the plan is to scale up to fully commercial 20 MW systems.'
Gravicitry Technology
Gravitricity technology uses a massive weight suspended in mine shafts to capture green power, and then release it in seconds. In February, the company received a £ 650,000 grant from Innovate UK, the UK Government’s innovation agency, to build their prototype.
The project partners believe Gravitricity can be a strong competitor in the frequency response market, where there is a requirement from grid operators for large, fast and frequent bursts of power to stabilise increasing amounts of renewables on the grid.
250 kW Prototype
'This 250 kW prototype will help us validate our simulations about how the technology works in practice and will give us the opportunity to utilise Huisman’s enormous experience in winches and cranes,' says Gravitricity Managing Director Charlie Blair.
'At the same time Huisman and our engineers will begin detailed design of the winch drive modules for our full-size 4MW demonstrator, which will be deployed in a UK mine shaft in 2020.'
Grid Stabilisation
Commenting on the agreement, Peter Berting, Business Development Manager at Huisman says: 'Gravitricity’s low power cost and high cyclability sets it apart from other technologies. The recent global growth of renewable energy means there is a growing need for grid stabilisation, and their energy storage system plays directly into this market.'
Power Networks Demonstrator Centre
It is planned the Dutch specialist will build the test module in Holland before shipping it to Scotland where it will be put through its paces at the Power Networks Demonstrator Centre (PNDC) in Cumbernauld.
'We have been working with the PNDC in the design of our test regime, and they will give us vital data on how our technology can provide grid balancing and rapid frequency response services to grid operators,' says Gravitricity lead engineer Miles Franklin.
Gravitricity is also working with Glasgow firm Industrial Systems and Control (ISC) on dynamic simulations and control mechanisms for the Gravitricity system.
