From Coal Pit to Power Hub: How India’s Abandoned Mines Could Spark a Green Energy Revolution 

Australian energy storage startup Green Gravity is expanding into India through a strategic partnership with TEXMiN, a technology hub at IIT (Indian School of Mines) in Dhanbad. This collaboration will focus on adapting Green Gravity’s innovative gravitational energy storage technology—which uses weights in mine shafts to store and generate electricity—for deployment within India’s extensive network of underground mines.

The initiative aims to repurpose abandoned or dormant mining infrastructure into clean energy assets, addressing India’s need for large-scale, long-duration energy storage to support its renewable energy transition while providing a sustainable future for former mining communities and creating a potential global blueprint for transforming industrial relics into circular economy solutions.

From Coal Pit to Power Hub: How India’s Abandoned Mines Could Spark a Green Energy Revolution 

In the heart of India’s coal belt, where the earth has been hollowed out for decades to fuel the nation’s rise, a quiet, profound transformation is beginning. It’s a transformation that seeks to rewrite the very purpose of these industrial scars, turning them from symbols of a carbon-intensive past into beacons of a clean energy future. 

The catalyst? A pioneering partnership between an Australian startup, Green Gravity, and India’s TEXMiN, a technology hub at the prestigious IIT (Indian School of Mines) in Dhanbad. This isn’t just another memorandum of understanding lost in the bureaucracy of green promises. It is a daring, tangible plan to deploy a technology known as gravitational energy storage, and it could fundamentally alter the energy landscape of India and the world. 

The Problem: India’s Dual Dilemma – Abandoned Mines and Intermittent Sun 

To understand the genius of this partnership, one must first grasp the two massive challenges it simultaneously addresses. 

First, the legacy of mining. India, particularly regions like Jharkhand and the wider Dhanbad area, is pockmarked with abandoned or soon-to-be-abandoned underground mines. These sites are often environmental and social liabilities—sources of groundwater contamination, subsidence, and lost economic opportunity. They are the ghost towns of the industrial age. 

Second, the intermittency of renewable energy. India is charging ahead with solar and wind power, but the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow. This creates a critical need for energy storage—giant “batteries” that can absorb excess power when generation is high and discharge it when demand peaks. Currently, this relies heavily on lithium-ion batteries, which are expensive, have a limited lifespan, require critical minerals with problematic supply chains, and present their own waste challenges. 

The question has always been: how can we build a grid-scale battery that is cheap, durable, and doesn’t rely on rare earth elements? 

Green Gravity’s technology offers a breathtakingly simple, yet brilliant, answer. 

Gravitational Storage: The Elevator Pitch for a Clean Grid 

Imagine a disused mineshaft, plunging hundreds of meters into the earth. Now, imagine a multi-ton weight, like a massive block of recycled concrete or steel, suspended at the top. 

When the sun is blazing, and solar farms are producing more electricity than the grid needs, that excess power is used to run a winch motor. The motor hoists the weight to the top of the shaft, converting electrical energy into potential energy, stored literally in the height of the mass. 

Then, in the evening, when lights flick on across cities and solar generation plummets, the process is reversed. The weight is released. As it descends, it pulls cables that spin turbines, converting that potential energy back into kinetic energy and then electricity, which is fed directly into the grid. 

This is the core of Green Gravity’s innovation. It’s not a new concept in physics—pumped hydro storage uses a similar principle with water—but its application in mine shafts is revolutionary. 

Why is this such a game-changer for India? 

• It Repurposes, Rather Than Abandons: Instead of sealing off these mining sites, they are given a new, productive, and clean lease on life. The infrastructure—the shafts, the land, the grid connections—often already exists, dramatically reducing development costs and time. 

• It’s Built for the Long Haul: Unlike chemical batteries that degrade over 10-15 years, a gravitational system is primarily mechanical. With proper maintenance, the winches, turbines, and cables can operate for decades, making it a truly sustainable long-term investment. 

• It’s Inherently Safe: There are no toxic chemicals, no fire risks (a significant concern with large lithium-ion installations), and no high-pressure systems. The “fuel” is gravity itself. 

• It Leverages India’s Geological and Industrial Heritage: India has a vast network of suitable mines. By targeting this specific geography, Green Gravity and TEXMiN are creating a bespoke solution for a uniquely Indian problem. 

The TEXMiN Partnership: More Than Just a Handshake 

The MoU with TEXMiN is the critical ingredient for success. A foreign company cannot simply drop a new technology into a complex market like India and expect it to work. This is where genuine insight and adaptation come in. 

As Green Gravity’s CEO, Mark Swinnerton, stated, the collaboration will involve “comprehensive site assessments, technology validation, and design adaptations tailored to the Indian context.” This is corporate speak for the hard, necessary work of making innovation stick. 

What does this actually entail? 

• Geological Adaptation: Not all mine shafts are created equal. The IIT (ISM) brings world-class expertise in geotechnical engineering to assess the structural integrity of different shafts and ensure the technology can be safely and effectively deployed across varied geological formations. 

• Regulatory Navigation: India’s energy and mining regulations are a labyrinth. TEXMiN’s deep roots and understanding of the policy landscape will be invaluable in securing permits, ensuring compliance, and integrating this new technology into the national grid framework. 

• Economic Modeling: The partnership will need to prove not just the technical feasibility, but the economic viability. This means creating business models that are attractive to Indian mine owners, state electricity boards, and private investors. 

• Workforce Development: This technology will require a new skilled workforce for installation and maintenance. TEXMiN’s role as an educational institution is pivotal in developing the training programs to build this green jobs ecosystem from the ground up. 

The Ripple Effect: Beyond Megawatts 

The success of this initiative would reverberate far beyond the energy sector. 

• A Just Transition for Mining Communities: For towns built around mines, closure can be devastating. Repurposing a mine as a clean energy hub preserves local jobs, maintains the local economic base, and gives these communities a proud and viable future in the new energy economy. 

• Grid Stability and Energy Independence: By providing reliable, large-scale storage (Green Gravity already has a pipeline of 10 GWh), India can reduce its reliance on peaking power plants, which often run on imported natural gas or domestically mined coal. This enhances national energy security and reduces the overall carbon footprint of the grid. 

• A Global Blueprint: If Green Gravity and TEXMiN can crack the code in India, it creates a replicable model for other mining-heavy nations—from Poland to South Africa to Australia itself. The Russell Vale mine deployment in Wollongong is the world’s first, but India could be the first to scale it. 

The Road Ahead: From Lab to Landscape 

The path from an MoU to a fully operational network of gravitational storage systems is not without hurdles. The technology, while elegant, is still in its commercial infancy. The Russell Vale deployment will be a critical global proof-of-concept. Scaling it will require significant capital, relentless execution, and unwavering political support. 

Yet, the vision is compelling. It’s a vision that sees not a scarred landscape, but a reservoir of potential energy. It sees a closed mine not as an end, but as a beginning. 

In the deep, dark shafts of Dhanbad, a weight is poised to drop. And when it does, it may well generate the power to light up homes and, more importantly, to illuminate a new, circular, and profoundly clever path to a clean energy future for us all.