Gravitricity Energy Storage - South Asia Feasibility

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Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£973,710

March 1, 2023

Feb. 29, 2024

Gravitricity is a novel technology to store energy by raising and lowering the weights inside a shaft. The design is based on an innovative combination of tensioned wires and a winch structure. This provides stability, performance and cost advantages. Gravitricity systems can generate up to 20MW of power, with durations of several hours. An evaluation by Imperial College London, accounting for Gravitricity's longevity (10-50x higher cycle life than batteries), shows that Gravitricity is more cost effective than other forms of electrical energy storage. This lifetime direct cost saving will enable local and regional grids in South Asia to accept higher proportions of renewable electricity.

The target markets for this project are India and Pakistan. Electricity demand is expected to treble between now and 2040\. Currently 73% of electricity is coal sourced in India, and 56% of electricity in Pakistan is fossil fuel sourced, from coal, gas and oil fuels. Cost effective energy storage enables higher penetration of wind and solar power on the grid. The Indian government has the target to have installed over 500GW of solar and wind power by 2030, up from 100GW in 2021\. The uptake of solar is driven in part by its very low cost, reaching 2 pence/kWh. As the share of renewables rises, this can cause frequency and voltage disturbances due to mismatch of load demand and generation. Gravitricity is well suited to grid balancing and rapid frequency response services.

This feasibility project will combine Gravitricity's technology with Panitek Power's expertise in bringing sustainable energy solutions to the South Asian market. It will develop a South Asia specific solution of the technology to address this market. This is through identifying technical, regulatory and market requirements, and then engineering an optimized solution. In parallel, there will be an evaluation of local supply chains to adapt to local requirements and improve cost effectiveness. Future project partners and potential sites will also be identified to form a proposal for a follow-on demonstrator project.