A UK firm pioneering liquid air energy storage (LAES) technology, Highview Power Storage, has appointed a former investment banker as chairman as it launches a foray into the US market.
Colin Roy (pictured), a former CEO of investment bank Greenhill & Co. Europe, has joined Highview as it opens offices in New York to negotiate “its first commercial orders” in the country.
Roy said Highview’s technology “precisely addresses the three real requirements of the energy storage market— long duration, large scale and environmentally friendly”.
“Everyone knows that energy storage is going to be the next big thing,” Roy said. “But only a true long duration energy storage solution can balance the grid and make intermittent generation both reliable and bankable. Utilities and grid operators need anywhere from four hours to days of energy storage capacity at large scale, which Highview’s LAES delivers at lower cost than commercially-available alternatives.”
Highview CEO Gareth Brett said its expansion across the pond comes as US markets are expected to follow the UK’s recent decision to impose “more stringent de-rating factors in capacity market auctions for short duration storage”— placing a “premium on long duration solutions”.
Highview was awarded GBP1.5 million ($2m) in funding last year from the UK government’s innovation agency to help use supercapacitors and flywheel technology to create its hybrid LAES system and test its performance and viability.
As BBB reported previously, the technology works by taking off-peak or excess electricity and using it to turn air into a liquid by refrigerating it to -196°C and storing it in insulated tanks at low pressure. When power is required, liquid air is drawn from the tanks and pumped to high pressure. Heat harnessed from the liquefaction process is applied to the liquid air via heat exchangers and an intermediate heat transfer fluid. This produces a high-pressure gas in the form of air that is then used to drive the turbine and create electricity.
Highview has said its 5MW/15MWh pre-commercial demonstration plant at Viridor’s Pilsworth landfill gas plant in Greater Manchester, will be commissioned early this year and the hybrid system is expected to be in full operation by the summer of 2018.
