World’s first giga-scale cryogenic battery takes on power stations
The cryogenic battery technology provides a levelized cost of storage (LCOS) of $140/MWh for a 10-hour, 200 MW/2 GWh system and so could potentially replace a fossil fuel power station.
The proprietary cryogenic battery technology uses liquid air as the storage medium, provides all the services essential for a robust grid including time shifting, synchronous voltage support, frequency regulation and reserves, synchronous inertia, and black start capabilities. Unlike competing long-duration technologies, such as pumped hydro-power or compressed air, the CRYOBattery can be sited just about anywhere with a small footprint, even at multiple gigawatt-levels, and does not use hazardous materials.
Air turns to liquid when cooled down to -196°C (-320˚F), and can then be stored very efficiently in insulated, low pressure vessels. Exposure to ambient temperatures causes rapid re-gasification and a 700-fold expansion in volume, which is then used to drive a turbine and create electricity without combustion.
Over the last 15 years, Highview Power has developed and optimized its own proprietary BLU core controller system for cyrogenic battery storage. This integrates the control of all CRYOBattery components, allowing a system to be configured to a particular application through the selection of individual operational modes. It also provides operation and performance monitoring feedback, ensuring a facility’s optimal efficiency. The system’s embedded flexibility further ensures that the controller has the built-in capacity to adapt as a facility’s demand varies with market development.
“Long-duration technologies such as cryogenic energy storage will become increasingly necessary for an electricity system to transition from a primary reliance on conventional fossil fuel generation to a grid dominated by variable renewable generation from solar and wind.”Alex Eller, senior research analyst with Navigant Research.
“This is a pivotal moment for the renewable energy industry and for anyone who wants to deploy large amounts of renewables,” said Javier Cavada, president and CEO of Highview Power. “As more and more renewables are added to the grid, long-duration, giga-scale energy storage is the necessary foundation to make these intermittent sources of power reliable enough to become baseload. Not only does our CRYOBattery deliver this reliability and allow scalability—it is proven, cost-effective, and available today.”
“This makes replacing gas peaker power plants with a combination of solar, wind, and energy storage a viable reality and truly sets the stage for a future where 100% of the world’s electricity comes from clean energy sources,” he said.
Other locatable, long-duration energy storage technologies—such as Lithium-ion—typically offer a range of 4-8 hours of storage, whereas the CRYOBattery offers multiple gigawatt hours of storage, representing weeks’ worth of storage, not just hours or days.“After looking at a number of storage technologies, we came to the conclusion that Highview Power’s CRYOBattery is the ideal solution to deliver long-duration, large-scale storage services to our customers. The technology is not only cost-effective—it is scalable, clean, has a long lifespan, and can be deployed now,” said Joaquín García Rico, CEO of TSK, a global engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) company. Highview Power recently announced ajoint venture with TSK to co-develop CRYOBattery projects in Spain, the Middle East, and South Africa.
Highview Power has also partnered with Finland-based Citec to modularize its gigawatt-scale cryogenic battery energy storage system. With a simplified design and streamlined engineering from Citec, a standard CRYOBattery configuration of 50 MW/500 MWh can be easily, and cost-effectively, scaled up to multiple gigawatt hours.
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