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The defunct mine lies about 450 kilometers north of Helsinki, Finland. Despite its remote location, it’s being watched closely because it’s poised to play a role in revolutionizing our energy systems — though not for the reasons you might suspect.
The Baihasalmi mine had made a fortune from zinc and copper, but it was going to cash in on gravity. As Europe’s deepest metal ore mine, it is an ideal location known as the Gravity Vault. UK-based company Gravitricity plans to hang a heavy weight down the mine shaft and connect the mechanism to a generator. It stores energy as potential energy by pulling the weight up and then regenerates it by letting it fall.
If that sounds surprisingly simple, that’s exactly the point. Governments wrestle with the never-ending epic challenge of renewable energy: how to keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. So far, they have mostly focused on expensive technologies like hydrogen, nuclear power and lithium-ion batteries. But what can we do to solve the intermittent problem – and cut bills and emissions – with more basic methods?
Gravity Vault could be a start. Other companies are developing energy-saving methods that involve technological marvels like salt, sand, water and heated bricks. These disarmingly…
