Funding has been awarded to Viridor Waste Management and Highview Power Storage to support demonstration of liquid air based energy storage, using waste heat from landfill gas engines.
The £8 million award is part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change’s innovation competition to support energy storage technology R&D.
The storage system will be connected to the grid and will be used to trials of supply and demand balancing.
Announcing the award, Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: "Storing energy…has the potential to save the energy system over £4 billion by 2050."
Other energy storage projects recently receiving support from DECC have included: Moixa Technology Ltd (awarded contract of £1.3m to install and demonstrate its battery storage unit in about 300 homes across the UK); REDT UK Ltd (awarded contract of £3m to build and test its redox flow battery technology on the Isle of Gigha to store surplus wind energy for use in the local electricity network when required); and EValu8 Transport Innovations Ltd (awarded £2.8m contract to develop a storage system partly made out of recycled batteries from electric vehicles, which will store renewable energy generated at times of low demand for use at times of peak demand).
Photo: CAD of the Highview and Viridor’s new 5MW/15MWh Liquid Air Energy Storage project (Source: Highview Power Storage)
