SOM Partners With Swiss Company To Develop Renewable Energy-Storing Skyscraper

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm behind some of the world’s tallest towers — including NYC’s One World Trade Center, Chicago’s Willis Tower and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai — has partnered with Lugano, Switzerland-headquartered Energy Vault to develop a skyscraper that stores renewable energy, CNN is among outlets to report. SOM and Energy Vault envision a 300- to 1,000-m-tall superstructure incorporating a hollowed-out area resembling an elevator shaft to house energy-storage blocks. A motor powered by electricity from the grid would elevate these giant blocks when energy demand is low. “These blocks would store the electricity as ‘potential’ energy,” CNN observed. “When there is demand, the blocks would be lowered, releasing the energy, which would be converted into electricity.” SOM and Energy Vault believe the concept is commercially viable, and are seeking partners to help bring their concept to reality.