Thursday, August 15, 2019
Energy Vault Finds $110M For Renewable Energy Storage Efforts
Energy Vault, a startup of Pasadena-based Idealab developing radically different energy storage technology--based on the movement of large, concrete blocks via robotic arms--has raised $110M in a Series B funding, the company announced this morning. The funding came from SoftBank Vision Fund (Vision Fund), and will go towards accelerating global deployment of its technology. As part of the funding, Andreas Hansson, Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, joins the company's board of directors. Energy Vault is developing a system which uses giant, software-driven crane arms to stack massive concrete blocks, each weighing 35 tons, into a huge tower, storing the potential energy of those blocks for future use. The company claims that its technology will allow the storage of renewable energy to deliver energy for less than the cost of fossil fuels, 24 hours a day. Energy Vault said it has combined machine vision software and a newly designed crane to automate stacking of charging/discharging of energy from huge towers of concrete bricks, and automatically handles energy supply and demand volatility, grid stability, weather elements and other variables.