Fabrication work on Gravitricity’s £1m 250kW energy storage demonstrator has completed with the device now ready for assembly.
Fife-based steel fabricator AJS Production has completed work on the demonstrator and the components will shortly be assembled on site in Leith port, Edinburgh, ahead of trials in early 2021.
AJS was contracted to deliver the base frame and the weight baskets for the gravity-based system.
The 250kW demonstrator’s lattice tower has been fabricated by ESL engineers in Hull.
The system’s custom-built winches and control modules have been made by international winch specialist Huisman at its factory in the Czech Republic and are currently being shipped to Leith.
The full 15-metre high rig will now be assembled at their grid-connected site at the port of Leith for testing to begin in February 2021.
Gravritricity senior mechanical engineer Steven Kirk (pictured) said: “AJS is fabricating two vital components for our demonstrator – the grillage (or base frame) will sit on the concrete plinth and will support the lattice tower, and the two weight baskets will be filled on site with high density aggregate, to create two 25-tonne weights.
“These weights will be suspended by steel cables within the tower, and in one test we’ll drop the weights together to generate full power and verify our speed of response.
“We calculate we can go from zero to full power in less than a second – which can be extremely valuable in the frequency response and back-up power markets
“We’ll then run tests with the two single weights, dropping one after the other to verify smooth energy output over a longer period, alongside a programme of other tests to demonstrate and refine the full capabilities of the system.”
The two-month test programme will give the developer valuable data for its first full-scale 4MW project which will commence later in 2021, Kirk added.