How to use gravity to store energy

Gravity batteries are a new big hope for storing excess renewable electricity. The idea is ingenious. Does it pass the reality check?

#PlanetA #GravityBattery #EnergyStorage

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

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Credits:
Reporter: Jonas Mayer
Camera: Killian Bayer
Video Editor: Neven Hillebrands
Supervising Editors: Kiyo Dörrer, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann, Joanna Gottschalk & Michael Trobridge
Technical support: Andreas Madreiter
Factcheck: Kirsten Funck
Thumbnail: Em Chabridon

Read more:

BloombergNEF research on options for long-duration energy storage, including gravity batteries: https://about.bnef.com/blog/lithium-i...

BloombergNEF New Energy Outlook 2024: https://about.bnef.com/new-energy-out...

IEA’s introduction to energy storage: https://www.iea.org/energy-system/ele...

IEA’s Batteries and Secure Energy Transitions Report 2024: https://www.iea.org/reports/batteries...

Julian Hunt’s research on underground gravity energy storage: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/825

Julian Hunt’s research on gravity energy storage in high-rise buildings: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Life-cycle assessment of gravity energy storage systems for large-scale application: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:56 How it works
03:25 New and big
05:49 The cost hurdle
07:45 Going underground
09:40 Pistons, ski lifts and skyscrapers
10:38 What now?