Until now, towering structures have been intended to convey the power of empires, rulers, religions and mega-corporations. Now they could have a new function: storing renewable energy.
One of the biggest barriers to sustainable energy production is that resources are only available in a cyclical manner. Even cloudy skies reduce solar energy production, which is impossible at night, and wind energy production requires air movement. Storing the energy obtained is essential to maintaining a balance between production and consumption.
The storage problem can only be solved by new revolutionary technologies.
Thus was born the idea of a skyscraper that could function as a giant battery.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the designer of the world's tallest buildings, SOM for short, has signed an agreement with Energy Vault, an energy storage company, to develop so-called gravitational energy storage solutions – I mentioned CNN Network.
Based on the futuristic idea, a tower block will be built, reaching a height of a thousand meters, inside which will be giant blocks that rise and fall like an elevator. In times of abundant energy, the blocks are raised high, and in times of energy demand, they are lowered to a lower level, and the released kinetic energy is converted into electricity – as shown in the video above.
Energy storage can reduce fossil fuel use.
SOM is an expert in high-rise buildings. Its architects designed the World Trade Center in New York, built on the site of the destroyed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the Sears, and last but not least the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 828 meters.
To give us an idea of the proportions: the tallest skyscraper in Europe could be built at Maxi Dubai in Krakósdirinsas, which would be 220-240 metres high, roughly a quarter of the Burj Dubai.
By combining SOM's knowledge with Energy Vault, we can eliminate fossil fuels, says Bill Baker, Burj Khalifa's design engineer.
The International Energy Association also calls for storage modernization and grid expansion, without which a faster transition to sustainable energy production is impossible.
Pumped storage is already widely used to store renewable energy. A turbine pumps water from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir during off-peak hours. When consumption spikes, the water is released from the top down, and the turbines generate electricity in the meantime. However, this solution requires mountainous terrain and a large area.
Another option, already used in Finland, is sand, which has proven to be a cheap and economical way to store heat.
The higher it is, the more effective it is.
In the SOM and Energy Vault towers, which can range from 300 to 1,000 metres in height, special elevator shafts are built to move the blocks, leaving plenty of space for both apartments and offices. Using this method, several gigawatt-hours of energy can be stored, says Robert Piconi, CEO of Energy Vault.
Incidentally, the company is also studying the possibility of using water energy in skyscrapers with a pump system instead of moving blocks.
Currently, energy storage experts question the project's economics, arguing that storage requires more space, which would necessitate structural changes.
On the other hand, Energy Vault and SOM are confident that their solution is commercially viable. Energy Vault has already commissioned a 150-meter-high, 100 MWh hydro-gravity energy storage system in China, but it doesn’t have space for tenants.
According to calculations, the higher the building, the more efficient its storage capacity.
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