{"id":57695,"date":"2022-01-10T07:26:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T20:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=57695"},"modified":"2022-01-10T07:26:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T20:56:41","slug":"sun-metals-energy-vault-mb2308","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sun-metals-energy-vault-mb2308\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun Metals Hooks Up With Energy Vault"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Energy<\/p>\n

Australia’s Sun Metals’ parent company Korea Zinc is ploughing a significant chunk of cash into Swiss energy storage developer Energy Vault.<\/p>\n

Sun Metals Corporation is the operator of Queensland’s biggest zinc refinery, located 15km south of Townsville. The company is aiming to be one of the first in the world to produce “green” zinc by using renewable energy, with a target of shifting to 100% renewables by 2040 and an interim goal of 80% by 2030.<\/p>\n

It has already made solid progress towards this goal with the Sun Metals Solar Farm<\/a>. Operational since August 2018, the facility incorporates more than 1.3 million solar panels.<\/p>\n

Also in the pipeline is Acciona’s MacIntyre Wind Farm in Queensland (923MW), which will provide approximately 64% of Sun Metals\u2019 zinc refinery’s electricity requirements; adding to the 24% provided by the solar farm.\u00a0 Additionally, the company set up by Korea Zinc to decarbonise the group’s energy supply (Ark Energy Corporation) announced in December it will acquire a 100% interest in Australian wind and solar energy developer Epuron.<\/p>\n

A missing piece in the strategy for Sun Metals has been energy storage – a piece that may now be in place.<\/p>\n

What Is Energy Vault?<\/h2>\n

Energy Vault is a Switzerland-based company developing gravity energy storage solutions. The Energy Vault system utilises gravity and kinetic energy through the autonomous orchestration of lifting and lowering of very large “bricks”. Surplus renewable energy is used to power Energy Vault\u2019s electric motor\/generator crane system to lift the bricks into position, “charging” the battery. When energy is required, the bricks are control-released, generating electricity.<\/p>\n

Here’s the EVx tower concept in action:<\/p>\n