In the most “back to basics” energy solution since rubbing sticks together, Swiss startup Energy Vault is stacking and unstacking massive 24-ton dirt bricks like a giant game of Jenga to store renewable power. Excess solar or wind energy lifts the bricks sky-high in towering facilities; when you need juice, just lower them for gravity-powered electricity. It’s brilliantly simple—no fancy batteries, just physics doing the heavy lifting (literally). With new mega-plants in Texas and China, this could cheaply store enough energy to power thousands of homes, making intermittent renewables reliable without the lithium drama. Who needs high-tech when low-tech towers of compressed soil save the grid?
Company Builds Facility That Lifts and Lowers 24-Ton Bricks to Store Energy
