The Anonymous Widower

Highview Power Releases More Details Of The Hunterston LDES

In a long and detailed press release, these are the first two paragraphs.

London, 15 October 2024: The First Minister for Scotland, John Swinney MSP, welcomed Highview Power Executives to Scotland House in London today as the company announced its intention to develop its Hunterston project in Scotland as part of its multi-billion-pound LDES programme. Hunterston will deliver five times Scotland’s current operational battery storage capacity and is strategically placed in the grid transmission network to maximise the use of Scottish-produced renewable electricity. This follows Highview Power’s funding round in June where it secured a £300 million investment for its 300MWh proprietary Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) technology at Carrington, near Manchester.

Supported by the Scottish Government, Hunterston is the first project in Highview Power’s second phase, which comprises four projects across Scotland and Northern England. The 2.5GWh LAES plant at Hunterston will deliver an 8-fold increase in storage capacity on Carrington – to deliver enough power 650,000 homes for 12.5 hours.

Note these important points.

  1. The Hunterston battery will be the first of four 200 MW/2.5 GWh batteries.
  2. Together, these four batteries will have a distributed 1600 MW/10 GWh capability.
  3. For comparison, Dinorwig pumped storage hydroelectric power station, in Snowdonia, which opened in 1984, has a 1600 MW/9.1 GWh capability.
  4. The second battery will be in Aberdeenshire.
  5. The Hunterston project will support 1,000 jobs onsite during construction and 650 jobs in the supply chain.

John Swinney, who is First Minister for Scotland, summed the project up like this.

The creation of the largest liquid air energy facility in the world, in Ayrshire, demonstrates just how valuable Scotland is in delivering a low carbon future as well as supporting the global transition to net zero.

October 16, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , | Leave a comment

Highview Power Plans To Develop 2.5GWh LDES Project In Scotland

The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Power Technology.

This is the sub-heading.

The liquid air energy storage plant at Hunterston is set to deliver a substantial increase in storage capacity

These first three paragraphs add a few more details.

Highview Power has announced plans to develop a long-duration energy storage (LDES) project in Ayrshire, Scotland, with a capacity of 2.5 gigawatt hours (GWh).

The project will be built at Peel Ports’ property at Hunterston, North Ayrshire and will provide five times the existing battery storage capacity of Scotland.

It is supported by the Scottish government and its strategic location optimises the use of renewable electricity produced in the country.

Note.

  1. Highview Power talks of 200MW/2.5GWh capacity batteries in Scotland on its web site, so I suspect this battery is one of those.
  2. This battery is as large as some pumped storage hydro systems.
  3. In UK Infrastructure Bank, Centrica & Partners Invest £300M in Highview Power Clean Energy Storage Programme To Boost UK’s Energy Security, I described the funding now behind Highview Power. The funding appears to be solid, as it includes the UK Infrastructure Bank, Centrica, Goldman Sachs and Rio Tinto.

This is a good start for Highview Power.

October 16, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments