Energy Vault wants to use gravity to store energy.
(Photo: PR)
Zurich The Swiss energy storage developer Energy Vault has won a dispute with an activist investor. The short seller Bleecker Street Research, which is betting on falling share prices of the company listed on the US stock exchange Nasdaq, had fueled doubts about Energy Vault’s technology and project pipeline in a report at the beginning of December.
Bleecker Street Research has now had to publicly withdraw and correct some speculation about allegedly canceled projects. Bleecker Street Research left a query from the Handelsblatt unanswered. Energy Vault boss Robert Piconi sees himself confirmed. In an interview with the Handelsblatt, he dismissed the report as “fundamentally flawed and factually inaccurate”.
Energy Vault develops lift storage power plants. Excess energy is used to power a hoisting and lowering system using motors and generators that will haul blocks weighing 35 tons up to 100 meters in the air. As soon as the energy is needed, the blocks are lowered to generate electricity.
Major project in China on schedule
The company was listed in New York in February 2022 through the merger with a stock exchange shell, a so-called Spac, at a billion dollar valuation. Energy Vault is now only valued at around $260 million on the stock exchange.
Nevertheless, Piconi believes the company is on the right track: the company is currently building the first commercial EVx lift storage power plant in China. “EVx will be the world’s first gravity-based energy storage system,” he wrote in a recent letter to investors. “We are well on our way to achieving what we set out to do with this first project.”
The letter to investors shows pictures of the construction of the plant in China at a very advanced stage. It is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter and the plant to be commissioned in the second half of the year.
According to Piconi, Energy Vault has orders worth more than $500 million. Sales are expected to be between $325 million and $425 million in 2023. With these figures, Piconi wants to finally dispel the doubts that several reports from short sellers had fueled.
More: Energy Vault boss contradicts short seller report – and raises counter-accusations