The Edinburgh-based weight droppers kicked off this year by unveiling their FlexiStore hydrogen storage technology as a new product alongside their existing gravity-based technologies.
The fast-growing company intends the first demonstrator projects to be housed in a former mine in Czechia, and at a purpose-built new shaft in northern England.
In a busy month, they’ve now invited corporate finance advisors Gneiss Energy to assist in raising £40 million to bring its next steps to fruition.
“Bloomberg predicts the energy storage market will grow by 21 percent annually with total global investment of £662 billion by 2040”, the financier observed.
“Lithium batteries are inherently suited to shorter duration storage of around one to two hours; however, future energy scenarios will also require increasing amounts of longer duration capability for which lithium ion is not well suited.
“In addition, supply chain constraints and geopolitical uncertainty mean that home-grown solutions beyond batteries will be required.
“Gravitricity is developing technologies which will last for decades and can cycle rapidly between charge and discharge without any loss in performance, as well as offering long duration capabilities – all characteristics which will become increasingly valuable to grid operators as renewable penetration increases.
“In parallel, their H2 FlexiStore taps into the rapidly growing hydrogen market offering a ‘Goldilocks’, mid-scale hydrogen storage solution, with a capacity between large scale salt caverns and much smaller above-ground storage, which is ideally sized for the industrial hydrogen hubs of the future,” Edgar says.
The company has already raised £7.5 million, around half in private investment alongside public support from the European Investment Bank (EIB), Innovate UK and BEIS.
Gravitricity’s commercial director Robin Lane added: “Gneiss is the ideal partner to help us attract the right kind of investor who will support us in this next phase of rapid growth.
“In parallel to our three pathfinder projects, we are also developing a portfolio of development sites worldwide, with project partners already in place in mainland Europe, South Africa, India, Pakistan and Chile.”
