According to foreign media reports, the business unit of Energy Vault, a developer of gravity energy storage, which deploys battery energy storage systems, recently signed an agreement with a solar power farm developer in Victoria, Australia, to deploy a 250MW/500MWh battery energy storage project for the power farm.
Energy Vault said it had signed the contract with Meadow Creek Solar. The company is the developer of this 330MW solar farm, which is located in the suburb of Victoria, about 270 kilometers from Melbourne, the capital of the state.
The company announced the news at the recent Australian Energy Trade Expo. Although the company said that the 250MW/500MWh battery energy storage system will provide elasticity and flexibility for solar farms, it has not yet provided detailed information on the purpose of the battery energy storage system and when it will be opened for operation.
Although Meadow Creek Solar has completed a lot of work that Energy Vault said, the project seems to be still in the early stage of development. The company said that it is currently conducting an environmental and technical assessment.
Energy Vault will now start the grid research and modeling of this energy storage project, and cooperate with DNV as its technical consultant, aiming at meeting the requirements of Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
Lucas Sadler, vice president of sales and business development in Asia-Pacific region of Energy Vault, said that the company recently launched customized AC and DC energy storage solutions in the Australian market, which are very suitable for this project.
Cameron Munro, development manager of Meadow Creek Solar, said, "The energy storage solution provided by Energy Vault is the key to our decision to choose the company's energy storage hardware and software platform.
Energy Vault's energy storage system is designed with higher energy density, which can work with energy storage system inverter or new AC module and advanced energy management software to achieve multiple uses, optimize economic dispatch and predictive maintenance. When cooperating with our financial and technical partners DNV and AusNet Services, it will bring flexibility and further choices. ”
Energy Vault is better known as a gravity energy storage technology developed by the company, which can lift large concrete blocks weighing tens of tons for charging, and then lower them for discharging.
However, since the company established an energy storage solution department focusing on software and energy management system (EMS) and later established mainly engaged in the deployment of battery energy storage projects, Energy Vault has obtained many large-scale energy storage project contracts, which are mainly deployed all over the United States.
At the same time, the company has built a large prototype of gravity-based energy storage system, and has carried out major design reforms.
However, the company claims that a 100MW gravity energy storage project deployed in China broke ground a few months ago.
The company also signed an agreement with Ark Energy, a subsidiary of Korea Zinc Industry Company, to develop a gravity energy storage system in Australia, and said that the scale of the system is as high as several gigawatt hours. Korea Zinc Industry Co., Ltd. is one of the investors of Energy Vault, which promised to invest 50 million dollars.
Meadow Creek Solar said that the project was developed with the joint support of local landowners, DNV and AusNet Services, an energy transmission service provider under Brookfield Asset Management.
Energy Vault Company went public in February this year after merging with SPAC Company, and in August this year, it provided guidance on the total revenue of 680 million USD from 2022 to 2023. The company's revenue in the first quarter of 2022 was $43 million, compared with only $1 million in the second quarter.
