The worldwide commercial potential of a novel liquid air energy
storage system developed by London-based Highview Power convinced
Sumitomo Heavy Industries to take a £35 million minority stake in
the company early in 2020.
That investment from the Japanese-owned global industries group
has allowed Highview Power to press ahead with ambitious plans to
build 20 liquid air bulk storage plants of 100MW.
It is eight years since the business received its first grant
from Innovate UK, just under £20,000 towards a proof-of-market
study. Further grants from Innovate UK have helped to accelerate
growth and development of the company’s liquid air energy storage
technology, now called the CRYOBattery.
The grants included £1.87 million to help convert a 5MW
demonstrator into the world’s first commercial-scale full liquid
air energy storage system, capable of rapid response and
qualifying as a supplier to the National Grid. This allowed
Highview Power to gauge the commercial benefit from such an
arrangement as well as the demand for similar systems and
services around the world. It also reinforced investor
confidence.
Highview’s cryogenic energy storage technology sprang from
engineer Peter Dearman’s liquid air engine, which he invented
some 15 years ago. Working with researchers at the University of
Leeds, Peter developed the concept of using air as a form of
energy storage, once compressed and liquefied at -196ºC.
Energy Research Accelerator (ERA), an energy research hub, also
funded by Innovate UK, and made up of eight
internationally-renowned Midlands universities, played a key
role, too: its institutions helped pioneer the large-scale energy
storage technology that is now being scaled up by Highview Power.
Highview Power now employs 45 people at its Charing Cross Road
headquarters, plus six staff in its New York office and another
in Spain. This year the company will begin construction of its
first truly commercial-sized liquid air energy storage plant at a
site yet to be announced.
Edward Scrase, project engineering manager at Highview Power,
said: “We are actively developing projects in the UK and the US.
The Sumitomo investment has helped to move those along quite
considerably.”
SHI’s technology centre will become a hub for the CRYOBattery
business, expanding the technology’s footprint in Europe, Asia
and the Americas.
Increasing use of renewable power opens up a big market for the
CRYOBattery, which is emissions-free. If hooked up to a wind
farm, it can become more viable in periods of low or fluctuating
demand. Liquid air is stored in a large insulated tank until
there is a demand for that stored energy.
When the call comes, the process uses stored waste heat from the
electric compressors to turn the refrigerated air back into gas
at an even higher temperature. The 700-fold expansion in volume
is used to drive a turbine and generate emissions-free
electricity for up to five hours.
Highview Power’s innovation lies mainly in the way that waste
heat generated in the compression process is managed for reuse in
the eventual discharge of the stored energy.
