🔎 What’s going on?
The world’s largest liquid air battery (or “Cryobattery”) is to be built in Greater Manchester by Highview Power and Carlton Power. The project is expected to come online in 2022 and can power up to 200,000 homes.
🔋 What does this mean?
Let’s start with what a liquid air battery is and how the technology works. As with most energy storage systems - there are three main stages:
1) Charging system - where the air is turned into a liquid using an industrial liquefier (a device that turns gas into a liquid by cooling it)
2) Energy is stored - in this case, liquid air is stored in an insulated tank
3) Power is recovered - whenever there is a demand for energy, the liquid air is heated up into gas. This gas turns a turbine to generate electricity.
The number one key benefit of this new liquid air battery is its “long-duration storage”, meaning energy can be stored of more than 4 hours to days and even weeks. This is absolutely crucial for us to fully transition to renewable energy on a permanent basis as it can support the electricity grid without the need for backup gas or coal power.
❓ Why should I care?
Renewable energy such as solar and wind are “intermittent” energy sources. This means that these sources of energy are not available continuously to be converted into electricity. For example, solar energy is limited when there is cloud cover and only available during daylight hours (not at nighttime). Unless the energy is captured when it’s produced, stored and then made available when required. This is where energy storage starts playing a very important role. Because storing energy allows an electricity grid to be more reliable and stable as demand and supply of energy can be balanced.
Efficient, scalable energy storage is the missing link that can truly accelerate renewable energy. Therefore, capturing and storing energy is fast becoming a growing need.
🚦 Where do we need to be?
By 2050, every country in the world (ideally) should be powered 100% by renewable (or clean) energy sources.
Earlier this year in April, the UK hit the 1 GW mark of operational energy storage projects, while the pipeline for new energy storage projects is at 13.5GW, just in the UK. Globally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that we need to grow capacity to 450 GW by 2050 if we are to reach net-zero emissions.
👤 What can I do about it?
Switch your energy supplier to a renewable energy provider today. The more consumers and businesses switch to renewable energy – it sends a powerful market signal to industry and government to respond to changing consumer preferences by increasing the supply of renewable energy. This will also drive more investment for long-duration energy storage solutions.
Here’s a list of green suppliers in the UK: Bulb, Ecotricity, Tonik, Ovo Energy, Good Energy, Octopus Energy, Bristol Energy, Pure Planet, So Energy, Coop Energy, iSupplyEnergy, Solarplicity, Green Star Energy, People’s Energy, M&S Energy, Yorkshire Energy, Flow Energy, Ebico.
Related: You might also be interested in Gravitricity to pilot novel energy storage system