Scottish energy storage outfit Gravitricity has signed a collaboration agreement with Czech electricity flexibility aggregator Nano Energies to develop commercial routes to market for gravity-based energy storage.
Last month Gravitricity unveiled plans to transform the former Darkov deep mine in the Czech Republic into a gravity energy store, which has potential to be a pathfinder for projects Europe-wide.
Gravitricity plans to store energy by lowering and raising a single massive weight suspended in the Darkov mine shaft.
“The Czech Republic is our home market, and we are experts in the field of flexibility aggregation,” explains Stanislav Chvála, CEO of Nano Energies.
“Gravitricity’s technology is able to respond to grid fluctuations very quickly and flexibly in terms of megawatt volume.
“We could thus involve them in our virtual power plants, which help balance the grid in the way that nowadays primarily coal and gas-fired power plants are able to do.
“It is a long-life technology, well suited to integration with existing grid infrastructure.
“It can cycle rapidly from charge to discharge without any loss of performance over many years, and it delivers extremely fast response times of less than a second.
“This makes it a very attractive package to grid operators seeking grid balancing and fast frequency response services.”
Charlie Blair (pictured), Managing Director of Gravitricity, said: “We anticipate this will become a commercial blueprint underpinning the financing and rollout of future energy stores Europe-wide.”
In February, Gravitricity signed a memorandum with DIAMO, the Czech state enterprise charged with mitigating the consequences of coal mining in the republic, where the two parties committed to work in tandem to seek funds to turn the decommissioned mine into a 4MW/2MWh energy store
In addition to the DIAMO agreement, Gravitricity also signed a memorandum with the Institute of Geonics, whose Geomechanics and Mining Research department hold extensive knowledge and understanding of the mining infrastructure in the Czech Republic.
The Institute of Geonics, which has provided strong support to Gravitricity in recent years, is expected to be closely involved in the development of the Darkov mine project.
The Darkov mine is located in the coal-rich Moravian-Silesian region of the Czech Republic, near the city of Karviná.