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    Green Gravity Lab in Port Kembla Aims To Produce

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    Ravikumar mahadev
    Green Gravity aims to produce renewable energy by lowering heavy weights down old mine shafts to turn turbines, similar to hydroelectric power but using gravity instead of water. They are building a prototype lab inside an unused industrial building in Port Kembla, Australia to test and refine the system. An accompanying digital twin is also being created using AI to help optimize scaling up the technology across old mine sites.

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    Green Gravity Lab in Port Kembla Aims To Produce

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    Ravikumar mahadev
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    Green Gravity aims to produce renewable energy by lowering heavy weights down old mine shafts to turn turbines, similar to hydroelectric power but using gravity instead of water. They are building a prototype lab inside an unused industrial building in Port Kembla, Australia to test and refine the system. An accompanying digital twin is also being created using AI to help optimize scaling up the technology across old mine sites.

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    Green Gravity aims to produce renewable energy by lowering heavy weights down old mine shafts to turn turbines, similar to hydroelectric power but using gravity instead of water. They are building a prototype lab inside an unused industrial building in Port Kembla, Australia to test and refine the system. An accompanying digital twin is also being created using AI to help optimize scaling up the technology across old mine sites.

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    35 views10 pages

    Green Gravity Lab in Port Kembla Aims To Produce

    Uploaded by

    Ravikumar mahadev
    Green Gravity aims to produce renewable energy by lowering heavy weights down old mine shafts to turn turbines, similar to hydroelectric power but using gravity instead of water. They are building a prototype lab inside an unused industrial building in Port Kembla, Australia to test and refine the system. An accompanying digital twin is also being created using AI to help optimize scaling up the technology across old mine sites.

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    Green Gravity lab in Port Kembla aims to produce


    renewable energy using weights, old mine shafts
    ABC Illawarra / By Justin Huntsdale
    Posted Sat 20 May 2023 at 9:48pm

    Get the ABC News app for the latest news


    and live notifications.

    An artist's impression of how the Green Gravity lab will look at the new site at Port Kembla. (Supplied:
    Green Gravity)

    What seems like a simple plan — sending a large weight down a


    deep hole — could help Australia towards net zero emissions.

    Housed in an old mine shaft and suspended


    by a strong cable, a weight is lowered 500 Key points:
    metres down a long drop and in doing so,
    A renewable energy company plans
    turns a turbine that creates electricity.
    to reuse old mine shafts to create
    electricity by lowering heavy
    It is the same technology that drove weights that spin a turbine
    grandfather clocks in the 1600s, and it uses
    Australia has about 100,000 old
    gravity to create electricity in the same way
    mine shafts which could be
    as a hydro-electric scheme.
    repurposed for the project
    "We're trying to do the same thing, but we The company is building a research
    don't need the water," Green Gravity chief laboratory inside an old warehouse
    executive Mark Swinnerton told Lindsay at BlueScope's Port Kembla site
    McDougall, on ABC Illawarra Drive.

    "We have nearly 100,000 legacy


    mines in Australia from all around
    and we have all these big holes in
    the ground, so rather than use
    water, we use dense objects."

    Green Gravity chief executive Mark Swinnerton. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)
    How it works
    In practice, the suspended weight might be lifted during the day when renewable solar
    energy is plentiful, then lowered at night when power is needed.

    Mr Swinnerton said most old mine shafts were still connected to the grid, which
    meant the system could help deliver power directly to communities near the shaft.

    "Only 3 per cent of our legacy mines have been fully rehabilitated or
    relinquished," he said.

    "As a country, we're not using it and it's a great opportunity to reuse infrastructure."

    Green Gravity is creating its lab in an unused building on BlueScope's land at Port Kembla. (Supplied: Green
    Gravity)

    Unused industrial building provides research space


    Green Gravity has partnered with BlueScope to a build a 12m tall prototype in an
    unused building at Port Kembla in Wollongong on the NSW South Coast.
    "Its purpose is to … fine tune [the] physics and the electrical wave forms and make sure
    we have everything right in our control systems," Mr Swinnerton said.

    "This allows us to have great confidence in the mine site and convince the mining
    operators to say, 'It's working over here', and that's a way of building confidence."

    BlueScope is currently working through a plan to repurpose and reuse more than 200
    hectares of unused land.

    "We are very excited that Green Gravity chose to establish its Gravity Lab here on our
    site by repurposing one of our industrial-sized buildings," BlueScope head of corporate
    affairs Michael Reay said.

    "It's a great fit and a tangible example of what we are trying to create — a modern, high-
    tech research and development precinct that builds upon our strengths in advanced
    manufacturing."

    Mr Swinnerton said the prototype's results could see the company become world
    leaders in the technology.

    "That's also an opportunity for regions seeing a reduction in mining


    activity," he said.
    Some of Australia's abandoned mine shafts are 500 metres deep. (Supplied: Department of Mines, Industry
    Regulation and Safety)

    Artificial intelligence used to build 'digital twin'


    Green Gravity is also building a digital replica of the Gravity Lab at Port
    Kembla using artificial intelligence.

    The replica will be fed with data from the physical lab to help calculate how the
    technology can be quickly scaled up.

    "What we've been able to do is build the Gravity Lab physically and digitally in such a
    high resolution world that it will behave the same way," Mr Swinnerton said.

    "One of the purposes is to calibrate and train its digital twin so you can see how we can
    find ways to accelerate our technology."

    The physical Gravity Lab is expected to be built by the end of this year.

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