Scottish first minister welcomes Highview Power’s 2.5GWh ‘world’s largest’ liquid air LDES project

First minister for Scotland, John Swinney MSP, welcomed Highview Power Executives to Scotland House in London yesterday (14 October) as part of the announcement.

“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,” Swinney said.

The announcement comes just a few days after the UK government confirmed it will launch a cap-and-floor mechanism for LDES projects following a period of public consultation. Though Highview did not mention the cap and floor in its announcement, many see large-scale LDES projects as commercially unworkable without such a support scheme.

Hunterston is the first project in Highview’s second phase of project development. The first is a project in Manchester, eight times smaller at 300MWh, for which the company secured £300 million (US$392 million) to build in July. Its second phase comprises four projects totalling 4GWh, with Hunterston the first.

Richard Butland, CEO of Highview Power, said. “This project will be transformational for Scotland in providing critical storage for offshore wind and solving grid constraints as well as delivering major
investment in Ayrshire, and the wider region.”

The company has been working towards a significant scale-up for several years, with the then-CEO Javier Cavada claiming five years ago that the company would start construction on a 250MWh system in 2020. Highview has had a 5MW/15MWh demonstrator plant online and operational since 2018.

See a video demonstration of the company’s LAES technology below.