Liquid air technology gets full demonstrator funding
Two British companies have been awarded more than £8million to build a commercial-scale liquid air energy storage demonstrator.
The funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), has been awarded to energy technology company Highview Power and waste management company Viridor.
The plan is to build a 5MW/15MWh pilot plant at Viridor's landfill site in Canterbury, Kent by 2015.
In addition to providing energy storage, the LAES plant will convert waste heat to power using heat from the on-site landfill gas engines.
The technology will be connected to the National Grid, and will be used to test the balancing of supply and demand using stored energy.
Gareth Brett, Highview Power Storage ceo, said: "By selecting to fund the demonstration of Highview's Liquid Air Energy Storage system, DECC has given a British company a great opportunity to begin commercialising a home grown, innovative technology that has the potential to make a major contribution in terms of helping balance electricity systems in the future."
