Highview Power Storage lands grant to build commercial-scale liquid-air energy storage demonstration plant

Source: spectrum.ieee.org

>"U.K.-based Highview Power Storage last week said that it has been awarded an £8 million grant from the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change to build a commercial-scale facility that uses liquified air to store energy. Highview is already running a smaller pilot plant, but the full-scale version will be able to store enough energy to deliver five megawatts of power for three hours.  […]

Liquid air energy storage is similar to compressed air energy storage in that air is compressed and released to store and then generate power. WithHighview’s technology, though, ambient air is compressed, then cooled and liquified. That liquefied air, which is almost -200 °C, is stored in large tanks.

When power is needed, the liquid air is released and pumped to high pressure. That causes the liquid to evaporate, turning it into a high-pressure gas which is then run through a turbine to generate power. The planned demonstration plant will be located at a waste processing center. Heat from the waste plant’s gas turbines, which run on captured landfill methane, will be piped in to improve the efficiency of the evaporation process.

One of the advantages of liquid air storage is that it uses off-the-shelf equipment. The tanks for storing liquid air, for instance, are the same as those used in the industrial gas industry. Highview’s expertise is in engineering the different components into a working system with the highest possible efficiency. “Getting the supply chain right is really what our technology is all about. What we’re trying to do is get a system to work with widely available kit,” Brett says.

This commercial-scale plant also gives an indication of how much liquid-air energy storage costs. For 15 megawatt-hours of storage, it will cost about £533 (about $900) per kilowatt-hour. But Brett projects the economies of scale from a larger plant would allow Brightview to get the cost under $500 per kilowatt-hour. At that price, energy storage on the grid can be cost competitive with power plants for a number of applications, such as storing wind and solar energy for delivery during peak hours, say experts.

Highview’s plant will be used to relieve congestion on the grid. For example, stored energy can supply power to the local distribution grid when substations are maxed out during peak hours."<