Energy Vault, Enervest team on 1 GWh battery storage in Australia

Specifics about Energy Vault and Enervest’s battery project are restricted to the 1 GWh battery capacity with no details released about the Stoney Creek site nor timelines.

Nonetheless, the AUD 350 million deal is a major development for Energy Vault, which has diversified its technology offering and pivoted its strategy significantly in recent years. Expanding into Australia’s battery market is a major part of Energy’s Vault’s new growth strategy, with the Enervest deal sitting alongside an agreement with ACEN Australia to build two new batteries with a total 400 MWh of capacity at the New England Solar Farm in NSW, announced in May 2024.

Energy Vault’s deal with Melbourne-based Enervest was signed on Oct. 21, 2024, with the two companies saying they are now “finalizing the development and grid application approvals” to bring the 1 GWh Stoney Creek battery to a full financial investment decision.

Under the agreement, Energy Vault will serve as “turnkey” engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning partner. It will also act as system integrator and provide long term services, software, and maintenance support over the life of the project. 

The Stoney Creek project will use Energy Vault’s lithium-based B-Vault™ technology, as well as the company’s proprietary X-Vault integration platform and Vault-OS energy management system to control, manage, and optimize battery operations, the company said.

Energy Vault pivot

Energy Vault is perhaps best known for its gravity energy storage systems, which are shaped like towers. The company’s novel gravity storage technology generated significant interest in its early days with Energy Vault’s stock price spiking shortly after it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in early 2022. 

By June 2022, however, Energy Vault’s share price had plummeted and in September 2024 the company reportedly received a written notice from the NYSE because the average price of its common stock had fallen below the $1 threshold required for continued listing.

Against that backdrop, Energy Vault has undergone a major pivot, diversifying into lithium batteries and green hydrogen technology. In October 2024, the company updated its growth strategy, in which it cited project financing for a utility-scale, green hydrogen, long-duration energy storage facility in California known as the Calistoga Resiliency Center, alongside its aforementioned Australian battery deal with ACEN, as landmarks.

As a result, Energy Vault’s stock has been trading higher throughout October 2024.

The company says its lithium-based B-Vault battery portfolio now consists of more than 2 GWh of deployed or in-development projects.

From pv magazine Australia.