An energy storage company has created ground-breaking designs for two new energy storing skyscrapers that could be the tallest in the world.
Energy Vault, a leader in sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have collaborated on G-Vault – gravity energy storage for grid support and renewable energy integration.
Alongside energy and water storage systems, they have also created two supertall skyscrapers – EVu and EVc – to make urban environments better equipped to deal with energy needs.
They are currently looking into the logistics of making them 1167m tall – over 300m taller than the Burj Khalifa, currently the world’s tallest building.
EVu is a tall, slender structure that uses a system of weights that move up via a pulley system during low-energy needs, and down during high-energy needs.
It can generate power for both the building itself and neighbouring structures. It will also accelerate carbon payback, or offset the emissions produced by construction quicker than the average build.
SOM said: “This innovative design will, for the first time in building construction and operation history, enable a carbon payback within accelerated timeframes of three-four years.”
EVc is a cylindrical structure that uses a “modular water-based system” as an energy source – the first to do so according SOM. It has also been designed to withstand winds and earthquakes.
It said: “EVc for the first time enables the deployment of large-scale pumped hydro energy storage systems integrated within tall building structures using a modular water-based system.
“When integrated into tall buildings, these systems can maximise sustainability, accelerate carbon payback of building construction, and lower the levelised cost of energy consumption.
“They can also bring sustainable energy storage to natural landscapes with minimal environmental impact.”
SOM is responsible for designing many of the world’s most famous buildings, including the Burj Khalifa, Tianjin CTF Finance Centre, Willis Tower, and One World Trade Center. It is now the exclusive architect and structural engineer of the skyscrapers.
G-Vault has also created an energy storage system designed to decrease environmental impact (EVy) and a water storage system that uses pumped hydro storage and stores water in pods located at low and high elevation (EV0).