Copyright © ChangeInc 2023

Sometimes, as editors, you stumble upon news that raises an eyebrow. That one odd innovation, an unexpected effect of climate change or a feat of human clumsiness. Remarkable, in other words. This week: a skyscraper with gravity battery.

A 1,000-meter skyscraper that simultaneously serves as a mega-battery. With that promise, the architectural firm behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai - currently the tallest building in the world at 828 meters - wants to rival their own world record. American SOM Architects, also known for skyscrapers such as One World Trade Center in New York and the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, is collaborating with Swiss firm Energy Vault for this purpose. They have devoted themselves to designing so-called gravity batteries.

Science fiction?

The word gravity battery has a tinge of science fiction about it. But the principle is quite down-to-earth. In a gravity battery, when there is a surplus of electricity, heavy weights are pulled up with pulleys. And just when power is needed, the weights sink back down. The energy released in the process can be used to generate electricity. An advantage of the technology is that energy can be stored for longer periods of time with little energy loss - which is often much more difficult with chemical batteries.

SOM and Energy Vault have presented concept versions of skyscrapers that incorporate this principle. In the middle of the towers, a kind of elevator shafts will be built in which weights can move up and down. The shafts should be 300 to 1,000 meters high. The structure could store several gigawatts of electricity.

Hydropower

The designers are also looking at the possibility of using water instead of weights. Water could be pumped to great heights, only to crash down like a waterfall. In fact, generating power with a hydropower plant at a dam works in a similar way: as water seeks the lowest point under the influence of gravity, it creates a powerful flow of water that drives turbines.

Mine shafts

Gravity batteries are not new: in Scotland, the company Gravitricity has a test site where weights are hoisted and lowered again in a 750-meter-deep mine shaft. The advantage of using old mine shafts is that relatively little infrastructure needs to be built to make the gravity battery possible. The mine shafts are already dug and equipped with heavy electrical connections.

Energy Vault is taking a different tack: the company is working on all sorts of ingenious structures that act as gravity batteries. For example, they have designed a hovermill-like tower that makes blocks of concrete move up and down. And in China, they have erected a block-shaped building full of elevator structures.

Future

As mentioned, the skyscrapers are still in a concept phase. There is no clarity on whether this concept will ever become a reality. Nor is there any mention of where the skyscraper is supposed to rise. But the illustrations place the towers in cities in desert-like landscapes. Perhaps that will attract the attention of ambitious oil sheiks.

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