• Energy Vault, a Swiss gravity and kinetic energy-based long-duration energy storage company, has entered into a license and royalty agreement with Atlas Renewable, a renewable energy company, and their majority investor China Tianying, a provider of environmental engineering services. 

• Atlas Renewable expects to invest USD 50 million for the use of Energy Vault’s proprietary gravity-based energy storage technology in China. The investment covers royalties, licensing fees, maintenance, and monitoring costs. The payment is planned for 2022. The collaboration expects to deploy a 100-megawatt hour system in China by Q2 2022 . 

• Under the agreement, Atlas Renewable will invest a further USD 50 million, increasing Energy Vault’s current private investment in public equity (PIPE) to USD 200 million.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Having made its first US sale in October 2021, Energy Vault plans for a global scale-up across the Middle East, Europe, and Australia in 2022. The Chinese collaboration could be a part of these commercialization plans. Energy Vault has also entered into partnerships with BHP and Korea Zinc to expand in Australia. The company has an ongoing SPAC deal to list on the NYSE in Q1 2022.</ul>