Highview Power raises £300m on its way to £3bn roll out
Highview Power has raised £300m for the first commercial liquid air energy storage (LAES) cryobattery in the UK as it looks to a £3bn rollout of four other plants
The investment will enable the construction of one of the world’s largest long duration energy storage (LDES) facilities in Carrington, Manchester, using the Highview Power LAES cryobattery technology.
Once complete, it will have a storage capacity of 300 MWh and an output power of 50 MWs per hour for six hours. Construction will begin on the site immediately, with the facility operational in early 2026.
High capacity energy storage is essential for stabilising the electricity grid, providing power when wind and solar cannot. Highview, backed by Sumitomo, has carried out a study with Danish wind power Orsted that covers the technical performance, route to planning approval and route to market. As a result of this study, the companies believe a project can be developed and built aligned with the timeline of an offshore wind farm. The project findings will be fed into the UK Government’s ‘Long Duration Energy Storage’ consultation process to demonstrate the benefits of LAES in delivering the shift to clean energy.
The backing for Highview Power comes from the UK Infrastructure Bank and Centrica alongside a syndicate of investors including Rio Tinto, Goldman Sachs, KIRKBI and Mosaic Capital.
Centrica comes on board as Highview Power’s strategic partner to support Carrington and the accelerated roll-out of the technology in the UK through a £70m investment.
Highview Power will now also start plans for the next four larger scale 2.5 GWh facilities across the UK by 2035 with a total anticipated investment of £3bn. The 2GW capacity would provide 20% of the UK’s energy storage requirements.
“Hard tech is hard! Few nowadays have the vision and courage to finance the development and scale-up of game-changing new heavy tech,” said Colin Roy, Co-Founder & Chair of Highview.
“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 grids transformation,” said Richard Butland, Co-Founder & CEO of Highview Power.
“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.”
“Integrating long duration energy storage into the grid is going to be vital to delivering the UK’s long term energy strategy. Our recent Future Energy Scenarios report shows that 4GW of liquid air storage will be required over the coming decades,” said Julian Leslie, Director & Chief Engineer at National Grid.
“As a long-term partner of Highview Power, Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI) warmly welcomes today’s announcement, which will cement Highview’s position as the leading provider of long duration energy storage in the UK. Through our license we have a commitment to Highview Power’s innovative liquid air energy storage technology, and we are excited to continue to support the company as it realises its ambitious programme of infrastructure investment,” said Tomas Harju-Jeanty, CEO of Sumitomo SHI FW.
Highview Power has being developing its LAES cryobattery technology in the UK over the last 17 years. The technology can store renewable energy for up to several weeks, longer than battery technologies, and is ready to be deployed across key grid locations at scale.
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