Although people often think of energy storage as a battery that uses a chemical reaction to release energy in the form of electricity. Chemical storage is just one class of a bigger spectrum. There are many other ways to store energy for later use, fossil fuel is a form of long term energy storage, hydroelectric dams and pumped-hydro are also forms of storing potential energy in water reservoirs and releasing it by dropping it and passing it through turbines.

Over the last decade, chemical energy storage has had great improvements in efficiency and capacity, lithium-ion batteries are currently in the spotlight of energy storage technology, accounting for 80% of energy storage VC funding, but the energy storage landscape is bigger than the teslas and the NIOs. Chemical batteries are a form of short-term storage and so far they are applicable at the household level. We need a form of longer term and larger scale energy storage that can leverage the surplus of renewable energy created at peak times.

There are a lot of startups working in the energy storage space, this map from our friends at Contrarian Ventures shows a comprehensive market map of it.

The spectrum in gravity energy storage is small. Some notable examples are:

• Energy Vault that is storing energy by using an automated group of cranes that lift and drop heavy blocks;
  
• Gravitricity is building a system with cables that lift weights from mine shafts and;
  
• New Energy Let’s Go, who acquired the patent of Heindl Energy GmbH (recently bankrupted) that uses hydraulic power to lift masses of rock.

However a new crop of players is coming to the scene. Terrament is a startup that is tweaking existing technologies to develop an innovative approach using potential energy stored at height, taking advantage of gravity, wind turbines and mining tech. We had the pleasure to interview Eric Chaves, Terrament’s CEO in our ClimateTech Talks podcast to discuss his upcoming techno-commercial plans, and the future of energy storage. Enjoy the conversation.

Terrament website: https://www.terramenthq.com/

Eric's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erchaves/

Daniel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielarraiz/

Our Substack - Explorationists: https://explorationists.substack.com/

Art by: Maria Alexandra Monteverde / Instagram: @mariale.ilustra.asi

Editing, mixing and mastering by: Julio Cesar Fernandez

Disclaimer: This podcast was prepared by myself in my personal capacity and the views and opinions expressed in the podcast are my own.

They do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of TGS and TGS does not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of the information provided herein.