Energy storage firm Gravitricity to demonstrate offering in India thanks to new capital supply

Edinburgh-based Gravitricity, which specialises in energy storage, has secured six-figure funding to demonstrate its offering in India, saying such technology could help decarbonise what is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

The business has secured £194,000 from the UK Government – following other funding announced this year – to find a site in the Asian country to showcase its kit that it explains works by raising weights of up to 12,000 tonnes in a deep shaft and then releasing them when energy is required. Gravitricity believes it could be ideal for India, adding that the country aims to install more than 500 gigawatts of renewables by 2030.

It also said it has been calculated that its system – which it plans to install in decommissioned mineshafts and custom-built shafts in the UK and mainland Europe – can store energy at half the cost of lithium-ion batteries, and the business has now partnered with India energy specialists Panitek Power regarding the 12-month project to identify a shortlist of demonstration sites.

Chris Yendell, Gravitricity's project development manager, said its “versatile” offering is ideally placed to serve India’s needs, adding: “It is also a relatively simple technology. It doesn’t rely on any rare earth metals, and has a very long lifespan, meaning it can be manufactured and deployed locally alongside vast amounts of new grid infrastructure which will also be required to meet the rapid growth in demand.”

Parag Vyas, chief commercial officer at Panitek Power, said: “Gravitricity’s technology has a response time of less than one second and can be cycled thousands of times, making it ideally suited to grid balancing and rapid frequency response services.”