A group of well-known designers and architects wants to build a one-kilometer-high building with a special energy storage system.
Pumped storage power plant: Energy can be stored in tall buildings. (Source: SOM)
- Tall buildings such as skyscrapers could serve not only as residential and office buildings, but also as energy storage facilities.
- A collective is already working on concrete plans.
- The plan is to build a one-kilometer-high skyscraper.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), a collective of architects, engineers and designers, was responsible for the design of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, among other things. Now the collective is announcing an exclusive “Global Gravity Energy Storage” partnership with Energy Vault Holdings.
The association wants to explore concrete possibilities for storing excess energy using gravity. The principle is known from pumped storage power plants (PSPs), among others. But here, on days when more energy can be generated than can be consumed, for example with the help of photovoltaics, a large weight is to be transported to the top of a tall building using motors.
The collective envisions building a new skyscraper one kilometer high. It would be the tallest building in the world. When energy is needed, the weight is slowly lowered; a generator produces electricity.
“EVu is a superstructure tower design that improves economics and enables the integration of GESS (gravitational energy storage systems) into tall buildings through the use of a hollowed-out structure with heights of over 300 meters and up to 1,000 meters,” said a press release from SOM and Energy Vault Holdings. “These structures will have the capacity to achieve multiple gigawatt hours of gravity-based energy storage to meet not only the building itself but also the energy needs of the adjacent buildings.”
The technology is expected to pay for itself within just three to four years. In addition to the weight-based version, the collective is also planning a version with water and turbines that will transfer the pumped storage power plant principle more or less 1:1 to high-rise buildings.
The project is in the planning and exploration phase. It is not yet clear whether and when it will be realized. Before that, the economic viability of the project must be tested in addition to its general feasibility. You can read more news from the area of alternative energy production here.
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