Following the announcement that Softbank’s US$100bn Vision Fund will invest US$100m in Swiss startup Energy Vault;

Amit Sharma, Practice Head of Power at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“If Energy Vault’s system can deliver on its promise of much lower cost and higher roundtrip efficiency, it can become the technology of choice for energy storage applications.

“GlobalData estimates that the battery energy storage systems market will more than double from US$6.1bn in 2018 to US$13.1bn by 2023.

“The energy storage system created by Energy Vault is truly a disruptive technology in the evolving energy storage industry, which has been growing very quickly.

“The system can be set up almost anywhere, and the technology allows wind and solar facilities to supply electricity to the grid 24 hours per day, in contrast to the grid-scale, lithium-ion battery packs that deliver power for just four hours.

“Softbank’s investment will prove profitable for companies looking for more affordable and bigger storage systems for renewable energy integration.”