A company developing gravity-based methods of storing energy in disused mine shafts has teamed up with a Dutch lifting, drilling and subsea specialist to develop a scale demonstrator of its technology.

Edinburgh-based Gravitricity has signed an agreement with Huisman to develop a 250kW concept demonstrator and test it early next year, before scaling up to full 20MW systems.

Gravitricity’s technology uses a massive weight suspended in mine shafts to capture power and then release it in seconds, potentially allowing it to be used in the frequency response market to stabilise increasing amounts of renewables on the grid.

In February the firm received a £650,000 grant from Innovate UK to build their prototype.

Gravitricity Managing Director Charlie Blair said: “This 250kW prototype will help us validate our simulations about how the technology works in practice and will give us the opportunity to utilise Huisman’s enormous experience in winches and cranes.”