Energy storage developer Highview Power has secured £300 million in funding for the first commercial-scale liquid air energy storage (LAES) plant in the UK.
The funding round was led by the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and Centrica, alongside a syndicate of investors including Rio Tinto, Goldman Sachs, KIRKBI and Mosaic Capital.
The investment will enable the construction of one of the world’s largest long duration energy storage facilities in Carrington, Manchester, using Highview Power’s LAES technology. Once complete, it will have a storage capacity of 300MWh and an output power of 50MW. Construction will begin on the site immediately, with the facility operational in early 2026.
Centrica comes on board as Highview Power’s strategic partner, supporting Carrington and the accelerated roll-out of the technology in the UK through a £70 million investment.
Highview Power will now also commence planning on four larger scale 2.5GWh facilities at strategic sites across the UK, with a total anticipated investment of £3 billion.
Liquid air technology can store energy for several weeks. Highview Power said it aims to build larger facilities across the UK by 2035 in line with one of National Grid’s target scenario forecasts of a 2GW requirement .
Richard Butland, Co-Founder & chief executive of Highview Power said: “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 grids transformation.
“UKIB and 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 provide 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.”