Disused mine shafts to become green energy stores of the future

Former Scots mining communities could find a new lease of life – with old mine shafts turned into hi-tech green energy stores.This is the plan of Edinburgh start-up Gravitricity, which has just received a £650,000 grant from Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency, for its plan to harness the power of gravity to store renewable energy.In a case of ‘what goes up, must come down’, their technology uses a massive weight suspended in mine shafts to capture green power, and then release it in seconds.If Gravitricity’s plan succeeds, the technology could breathe new life into former mining communities, and with it jobs and economic activity.The UK funds will enable them to start building a scale demonstrator later this year, and find a site to install a full-scale prototype by 2020.They are now on the look-out for investors, including those who can bring mining experience to the team, and suitable shafts to trial their technology.And once they have proven the technology in old mines, they then plan to sink new shafts to store energy wherever it is required.