Europe's deepest mine becomes gravity battery

A mine more than 1,400 meters deep in Finland will store renewable energy and supply electricity on demand to the grid.

The Pyhäsalmi mine is the deepest mine in Europe. Photo: Research Gate — The Pyhäsalmi mine is the deepest mine in Europe. Photo: *Research Gate*

British energy storage company Gravitricity will soon begin converting the world's deepest mine into the world's first gravity battery, Interesting Engineering reported on January 5. The 1,444-meter-deep Pyhäsalmi mine is located in Pyhäjärvi, 450 kilometers north of Helsinki, Finland.

Owned by Canada-based First Quantum Minerals, Europe’s deepest mine is a source of zinc and copper. It is also the largest employer in the region, providing 600 direct and indirect jobs. Production at the mine ceased in August 2022 and the community began exploring a range of on-site initiatives.

Edinburgh-based Gravitricity has developed a gravity-based system that can act as a battery to store excess energy from renewable sources. On sunny or windy days, when a wind or solar farm produces more energy than is needed, the system can lift a weight placed in a decommissioned mine shaft to store energy. When demand increases, the weight can be lowered to release energy, and the winch acts as a generator. Depending on the need, the weights can be released slowly or suddenly to meet the energy demand. Gravitricity will use a 530-meter-deep sub-shaft to build a 2 MW prototype to demonstrate the technology. They are also exploring mines in other countries, including the Czech Republic, Germany, and India.

Gravity-based energy storage systems have been tested in various forms. They are a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries. Previously, a gravity-based energy storage project in Switzerland took 14 years to build and could power 900,000 homes.

By comparison, Gravitricity’s solution uses existing infrastructure, such as deep mines, that can be repurposed after operations are over. This approach not only provides jobs in remote areas around mines, but also offers storage characteristics similar to lithium-ion batteries. For example, a gravity battery can go from zero to full capacity in less than a second. It is also modular, allowing designers to customize it to local conditions and requirements.

The technology is much better than lithium-ion batteries in terms of efficiency and cost, which often suffer from power loss. The system is also cheaper to deploy and operate, and is not limited by the number of cycles or years of energy storage.

An Khang (According to Interesting Engineering )

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