Renewable

June 2 (Renewables Now) - The corporate venturing subsidiary of energy and chemicals producer Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) has made an investment of an undisclosed amount in renewable energy storage systems maker Energy Vault Inc.

The financial backing from Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures LLC (SAEV) will allow Energy Vault to speed up the global deployment of its technology, the latter said in a statement.

Energy Vault has developed a pumped hydro-inspired system enabling intermittent renewable energy generation to be stored at GW-hour scale. Rather than water, the technology relies on custom-made composite blocks, lifted by a crane to store energy at height and then lowered to discharge electricity.

The company achieved mechanical completion for its first commercial-scale system in July 2020. The particular 5-MW/35-MWh unit was hooked to the Swiss national utility grid. Energy Vault is now working on an optimised platform called EVx that has a highly scalable and modular architecture. It can be built out in 10-MWh increments and scaled to multi-GW-hour storage capacity.

“Our mission at SAEV is to invest in companies developing technologies with strategic importance to Aramco. Energy Vault’s innovative energy storage technology has unique environmental and economic benefits,” commented Mahdi Aladel, CEO of Aramco Ventures.

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