Energy Storage Startup Using Gravity Will Go Public in SPAC Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Energy Vault, a startup using building blocks and gravity to store large amounts of energy, plans to go public in a merger that values it at $1.6 billion. 

The deal with special purpose acquisition company Novus Capital Corporation II will provide as much as $388 million in gross cash proceeds, the two firms said in a statement. The funds will be used to deploy Energy Vault’s system worldwide at a time when demand is growing for ways to store the variable output of solar power plants and wind farms. 

The startup, founded in 2017, uses cranes to stack heavy, composite blocks into towers when electricity is cheap and plentiful. Then, when energy is needed, the blocks are lowered back to the ground, with the kinetic energy converted to electricity. 

The system is designed to deliver electricity for longer durations than the large-scale lithium-ion batteries being plugged into the electricity grid in places such as California and Australia -- batteries that typically run for just four hours at a time.

The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, was first reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal. The combined company will be called Energy Vault Holdings Inc. and is expected to trade under the ticker symbol “GWHR” on the New York Stock Exchange.

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