Highview Power has inaugurated a 5MW/15MWh liquid air energy storage (LAES) system at the Pilsworth landfill site near Bury in Lancashire.
The pre-commercial demonstrator uses liquid nitrogen shipped in by tanker that will be pumped at high pressure, converting it into a gas forced through a turbine to generate power.
The LAES plant was developed in partnership with recycling and renewable energy company Viridor and is backed by around £8m of funding awarded by the then Department of Energy & Climate Change in 2014.
The project received £1.5m of InnovateUK funding last summer to demonstrate how LAES can provide a number of reserve, grid-balancing and regulation services in partnership with demand response aggregator KiWi Power.
Highview Power chief executive Gareth Brett said: “The market opportunity for LAES technology is exciting. We estimate that 60% of the global energy storage market comprises long-duration, grid-connected storage and that our LAES technology is ready to meet almost half of this.
“We are therefore already in detailed negotiations to build plants ten times the size of this one for utility customers of several nationalities and for various different applications.”
Image: Pilsworth LAES (Highview Power)
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