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About Us

Introducing our new Energy Storage Tower.

Watch our 3D video simulation of our tower in action.

We imagine a world in which science and the deepest respect for our natural resources herald a new, creative and technological approach to providing clean, renewable energy that truly satisfies the needs of all its stakeholders.

Energy storage is key to this transition and so Energy Vault is proud to present its ground-breaking energy storage technology, driven by expertise, passion and transformational innovation. As an IdeaLab (www.idealab.com) founded portfolio company, we bring 30 years+ of technology innovation and success in turning breakthrough ideas into practical and scalable solutions. Building upon Idealab’s development the last 20 years in solar PV and CSP energy infrastructure solutions where the need for storage is fundamental, our utility scale solution utilizes the fundamental principles of science to deliver a storage solution that’s as compassionate to the planet as it is efficient to build and operate.

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The Problem

At the forefront of technological innovation, there is a limit to the amount of electricity that can be delivered to the grid from intermittent renewable energy sources.

Renewable energy is now widely affordable. However, production unpredictability and intermittency from reliance on factors such as wind and sunlight mean that renewables have not been able to fully replace fossil fuel generation.

Until now that is.

Our Solution

Our breakthrough technology was inspired by pumped hydro plants that rely on gravity and the movement of water to generate power.

The Energy Vault solution utilises the same fundamentals of physics and kinetic energy as pumped hydro but replaces the water with custom made cylindrical blocks utilising an extremely innovative use of low-cost materials.

These low-cost blocks, combined with our patented system design and some very clever control software, has allowed us to deliver all the benefits of a pumped hydro system but at a much lower price, starting size and without the need for hard to find topography.

Proven Technology:
Deploys with simple physics, known science

Safe Construction and Operation:
Utilizes waste debris/ concrete materials; simple and safe construction, operation

Disruptive Economics:
Cost/kWh < 50% of current competitor solutions; 100% software-
automated operation with minimal OpEx

Unmatched Performance:
30+ year life with ‘zero ’ loss/degradation; ~90% round trip efficiency; rapid on demand and discharge

Maximum Flexibility:
Modular 10-35MWh+ capacity, 2-5MW of
power output, suitable to most industrial and non-suburban locations.

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Operating Parameters

– The bricks are lifted to create a tower causing the energy to be stored in the elevation gain

– When the bricks are then returned to the ground the kinetic energy from the falling brick is turned back into electricity

– Specially engineered control software is used to ensure the bricks are placed in exactly the right location each time

– The system is modular and flexible with each plant having a capacity of between 10 and 35MWh and a power output of between 2 and 5MW

– The system is ideally suited to longer duration storage but with very fast response times can also be used to deliver short and medium term ancillary services

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Pricing

  • The Energy Vault storage solution will operate at less than 50% of the cost/kWh of current competitor storage solutions
  • The lowest-cost bulk energy storage system available on the market

The pricing is dependent on several factors:

  • Capacity of the plant
  • Cost of foundation pad
  • Cost of waste materials

Construction

  • Simple and safe
  • Easy to install foundation pad
  • Self-constructing crane
  • Block material delivered and constructed on-site
  • Each completed block is lifted and placed by the crane
  • Once all blocks in place the system is operation ready
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The Team

The founding team of Energy Vault consists of experienced entrepreneurial energy industry personnel with deep technical background, both of mechanical energy storage, but also the storage market and customer requirements.

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Robert Piconi
CEO

His experience includes prior Executive leadership roles in Fortune 100 public companies across various industries including Diversified Energy (Amoco/British Petroleum), Telecommunications Infrastructure (Bell Labs Lucent Technologies, Alcatel), and Security/Network Management (Danaher Corporation). Undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame and his graduate MBA studies at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

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Andrea
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Andrea Pedretti
CTO

Previously, Andrea was the founder and CTO of Airlight Energy, a CSP company using inflated lenses and concrete formed structures for extremely low-cost solar plus storage. He has been co-founder and CTO of a number of technology companies and holds over 20 patents for a variety of civil engineering and energy applications. Andrea holds an MS in structural engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich.

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Merrick Kerr
CCO

Merrick has worked in the energy industry for most of his career with over 10 years in renewables, mostly wind and solar. Merrick has had both finance and commercial roles and has played a major part in the deployment of over 1 GW of wind and solar. Merrick received his BSc in Social Sciences from the University of Edinburgh in the UK and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

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Aaron Fyke
Advisor

Aaron was the founder and CEO of Energy Cache, a gravity-based grid-scale energy storage company. Aaron led a team to develop a gravity-based solution using low-cost rocks as the storage medium. He holds an MBA and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Bill Gross
Founder & Chairman, Idealab

Bill is the founder & Chairman of Idealab, created to tackle big ideas that others would not. Bill has been co-founder to a number of energy storage/solar companies including Energy Cache, eSolar, Duron Solar, Raytracker, Thermata, and others. Bill received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California Institute of Technology.

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