A Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) system run by UK-based storage provider Highview Power has been named a finalist for the S&P Global Platts Global Energy Awards.
The 5MW/15MWh Pilsworth Grid Scale Demonstrator Plant— “the world’s first grid-scale LAES system—has been developed in partnership with fellow UK-based recycling and renewable energy company Viridor, and is backed by UK Government funding of £8 million (US$10.2 million).
LAES offers reliable and cost-effective long-duration energy storage. The systems take advantage of the 700-fold expansion in volume that takes place when air transitions from liquid to gas to power turbines and generate electricity.
“This is the time of liquid air energy storage”, said Highview Power President and CEO, Javier Cavada. “It provides the long-duration energy storage capacity of over eight hours and beyond that the world needs to achieve 100% renewable energy.”
Since it was officially launched in June 2018, the relatively small— given that LAES systems can be scaled up to more than 200MW/1.2GWh— Pilsworth Plant has been providing grid balancing services and integrating intermittent distributed energy sources such as solar and wind into the power grid.
