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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

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

"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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