A Fife fabrication firm are constructing key components for a £1 million energy storage demonstration system set to go online within weeks.
Cowdenbeath-based AJS Production Ltd have been contracted to deliver the base frame and the weight baskets for the innovative gravity-based prototype.
Assembly of Gravitricity’s 250kW demonstrator system begins at the test site at the port of Leith in Edinburgh this week.
The full 15-metre high rig, which includes a lattice tower fabricated in Hull and custom-built winces and control modules manufactured by specialists in the Czech Republic, is set to be grid-connected for testing in February.
Steven Kirk, senior mechanical engineer for Gravitricity said: “AJS is fabricating two vital components for our demonstrator – the base frame will sit on the concrete plinth and will support the lattice tower, and the two weight baskets will be filled on site with high density aggregate, to create two 25-tonne weights.
“These weights will be suspended by steel cables within the tower, and in one test we’ll drop the weights together to generate full power and verify our speed of response.
“We calculate we can go from zero to full power in less than a second – which can be extremely valuable in the frequency response and back-up power markets.
“We’ll then run tests with the two single weights, dropping one after the other to verify smooth energy output over a longer period.
“This will be alongside a programme of other tests to demonstrate and refine the full capabilities of the system.
“Our two-month test programme will begin in February and will confirm our modelling.
“It will give us valuable data for our first full-scale 4MW project which will commence later in 2021.”
The energy storage system works by raising heavy weights totalling up to 12,000 tonnes in a deep shaft and releasing them when energy is required.
The project is supported by a £640,000 grant from UK Government funder Innovate UK and Gravitricity plans to roll out their technology in disused mine shafts worldwide.
Renewable energy
This year, AJS Production has also been involved in the production of a 30-tonne wave machine.
The 20-metre long Blue Star wave energy converter, designed by Edinburgh start-up Mocean Energy is supported by £3.3 million from Wave Energy Scotland through their Novel Wave Energy Converter programme.
