The two-stage Hunterston project is supporting 1,000 jobs on site during construction and 650 jobs in the supply chain. A 300 megawatt hour project at Carrington, near Manchester, will create more than 700 jobs in the north-west and should be in operation in 2026. Highview also has projects in Australia and Japan.
A funding round in June 2024 secured £300 million for Highview to develop a multi-billion-pound programme around its long duration energy system technology. Total investment is now £377 million, including £70 million from Centrica.
The facility will store surplus electricity in the form of liquid air. Liquid air is air that has been cooled to a very low temperature and condensed into a pale blue liquid. It’s used as a refrigerant and to produce oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases.
Innovate UK and Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund investments since 2012
UKRI has been supporting Highview Power through a succession of Innovate UK and Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund investments totalling over £2 million, starting with a proof-of-market study in 2012.
Liquid air energy (LAES) systems function by using an electrically driven compressor-based refrigeration system to condense air into a cryogenic fluid.
The liquid air is stored in low pressure tanks until the system is required to discharge, at which point ambient or waste heat is applied and work is captured from the expanding gas in an expansion turbo generator. The generator is typically synchronous and as a result, naturally provides inertia to the system.
Highview have developed a way to enhance the design of LAES systems in order to provide rapid enhanced frequency response services with future LAES plants.
‘First-of-a-kind’ deployment
This project will explore a first of its kind deployment of their newly patented system innovations. It will ascertain the commercial benefit of entering future National Grid Enhanced Frequency Response tenders, in addition to the demand for similar services and faster response times in general around the world.
Hunterston is the first project in Highview Power’s second phase, which comprises four projects across Scotland and northern England. The 2.5 gigawatt hour LAES plant at Hunterston will deliver an eight-fold increase in storage capacity on Carrington. This is enough to deliver power to 650,000 homes for 12.5 hours.
Located on Peel Ports site in North Ayrshire, Highview Power has already successfully secured the developing rights for Hunterston. The plant will be built in two stages. The first will be the grid connection and works to provide grid stability services, and the second phase will be a full LAES build-out.
The planning process will now commence for the second phase. The Hunterston project will support 1,000 jobs onsite during construction and 650 jobs in the supply chain.
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