Highview Power, an energy storage company, announced that it has secured the support of the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and Centrica with a £300 million investment, according to a press release by the energy company.
The investment will be directed towards the construction of the first commercial-scale liquid air energy storage (LAES) in the UK.
The £300 million funding round was led by the UKIB and Centrica. Other prominent institutions and organizations such as Rio Tinto, Goldman Sachs, KIRKBI and Mosaic Capital also participated in the funding round.
The funds allocated for the project will enable the construction of one of the largest long-duration energy storage (LDES) facilities. The storage facilities will be established in Carrington, Manchester, using Highview Power’s LAES technology.
Once built, the storage system will reportedly have a capacity of 300 megawatt-hours (MWh) with an output power of 50 MW per hour for six hours.
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Richard Butland, Co-Founder and CEO of Highview Power, said, “There is no energy transition without storage. The UK’s investment in world-leading offshore wind and renewables requires a national long-duration energy storage programme to capture excess wind and support the grid’s transformation”.
He added, “UKIB, Centrica, and our partners have today backed our ambitious plan to bring renewable energy storage into the UK economy at scale, liberating the potential of what is both the greenest and by far the cheapest energy source for the UK economy and providing energy security.”
“Our first project in Carrington will be the foundation for our full-scale roll-out in the UK and expansion with partners to share this British technology internationally.”
Construction for the project is set to commence immediately, with the anticipated date of operations in early 2026.
The project will also generate 700 jobs in construction and the supply chain.