A 3,300-Foot-Tall Battery May Become The World’s Tallest Building
As if a proposal for a suspended skyscraper that would hang inverted from an asteroid wasn’t enough, this new proposal would build the world’s tallest building that wouldn’t just be your ordinary, run-of-the-mill skyscraper–it would actually be a 3,000-foot-tall battery.
As reported by the CNN, architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), who’s the firm behind iconic buildings such as One World Trade, has joined forces with Energy Vault to bring the mega battery to life.
The skyscraper would, in a way, act as a storage unit for electricity to be used as “potential” energy.
Giant elevated blocks would be elevated into the air when energy demand was low, and when the city was in need of an energy spike, the giant blocks would descend and release the stored energy to be converted into electricity.
Bill Baker, a consulting partner at SOM and structural engineer for the Burj Khalifa, told CNN:
Here’s an opportunity to take this expertise … and use it for energy storage, enabling us to wean ourselves [off] fossil fuels.
CNN writes how to live with a power grid dominated by clean energy energy storage is crucial–cloudy skies get in the way of using solar energy, while days without wind prevent turbines from generating power. This proposed skyscraper would solve these issues.
If constructed, the skyscraper could stand as tall as 3,300 feet with “hollowed out structures resembling elevator shafts for moving the blocks, leaving room for residential and commercial tenants,” according to CNN.
They’re reportedly also toying with the idea of integrating pumped storage hydropower into the skyscrapers and using water instead of blocks which could store multi-gigawatts-hours of energy, enough energy to power several buildings.
SOM and Energy Vault are still in search of partners that could help bring these battery towers to fruition. Robert Piconi, the CEO of Energy Vault, told CNN that “SOM’s credibility in the tall buildings arena will help address the challenge of getting the first one built.”
You can learn more about the battery skyscraper here.
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