The most established methods of energy storage (pumped hydro, batteries, and green hydrogen) all have their drawbacks, being expensive or geographically constrained. But a breakthrough low-cost, build-anywhere solution may have been found, thanks to a privately-funded UK-based company that has been quietly developing its unique technology for the past 14 years.
Highview Power’s liquid-air energy storage (LAES) technology — which has been proven in the field at a 5MW/15MWh grid-connected pilot project near Manchester — is able to store huge amounts of power for months at a time in any location, and at a far cheaper price than any other energy-storage system.
“For a 100MW system, we are already touching a levelised cost of storage (LCOS) of $100 per MWh today,” chief executive Javier Cavada tells Recharge. “In ten years from now, I can see that being $50/MWh. That’s very doable.”
By comparison, a new pumped-hydro plant would have an LCOS of $152-198 per MWh, with a comparable lithium-ion system costing $285-581/MWh, according to analyst Lazard.
With a new gas-peaker plant having a levelized cost of energy of $156-210/MWh, and wind power at $30-60/MWh (according to Lazard), it may already cheaper to balance the grid using wind-powered liquid-air storage than fossil-fuel technology. And if the LAES system is “charged” using wind power that would otherwise be curtailed, the wholesale price of that power would be close to zero.
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