Energy revolution: skyscrapers in the Emirates will be turned into giant batteries
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the designer of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, has teamed up with Energy Vault Holdings to explore the possibility of creating huge skyscrapers as tall as 1 km. They will also function as giant gravitational energy storage systems.
The sentence contains two particularly noteworthy ideas. The first is reminiscent of research by companies such as Gravitricity and IISA, and involves using excess energy – whether from renewable sources such as solar power or from the standard power grid – to lift a load to the top of a very tall skyscraper. If necessary, the weight is dropped, allowing it to lower down the building, using gravity to drive the generator.
“The EVu is a tower add-on design that improves installation economics and allows the integration of GESS, gravity energy storage systems, into high-rise buildings by utilizing a hollow structure from 300 meters high to 1000 meters high,” explains the press release from SOM and Energy Vault Holdings.
These structures will be able to accumulate gravitational energy of several GWh to meet the energy needs of not only the building itself but also neighboring buildings.
In addition to the EVu gravity system described above, the team offers the so-called EVc system. It will function in a similar way, but instead of being heavy, it will pump water to the top of the skyscraper and then discharge it to run turbines and generate electricity.
While the basic science behind both ideas is sound, the practical challenges are significant and include issues such as the ability to support all that extra weight, as well as efficiency and overall maintenance.
