Tdworld 19099 Highview Power Pilot Plant
Tdworld 19099 Highview Power Pilot Plant
Tdworld 19099 Highview Power Pilot Plant
Tdworld 19099 Highview Power Pilot Plant
Tdworld 19099 Highview Power Pilot Plant

Highview Power Unveils Giga-Scale Cryogenic Battery

July 3, 2019
Highview Power’s cryogenic energy storage system is equivalent in performance to, and could potentially replace, a fossil fuel power station.

Highview Power recently announced that it has developed a modular cryogenic energy storage system, the CRYOBattery, that is scalable up to multiple gigawatts of energy storage and can be located anywhere. This technology reaches a new benchmark for a levelized cost of storage (LCOS) of US$140/MWh for a 10-hour, 200 MW/2 GWh system. Highview Power’s cryogenic energy storage system is equivalent in performance to, and could potentially replace, a fossil fuel power station. The company’s systems can enable renewable energy baseload power at large scale, while also supporting electricity and distribution systems and providing energy security.

Highview Power’s cryogenic energy storage technology, which uses liquid air as the storage medium, provides all the services essential for a robust grid including time shifting, synchronous voltage support, frequency regulation and reserves, synchronous inertia, and black start capabilities. Unlike competing long-duration technologies, such as pumped hydro-power or compressed air, Highview Power’s CRYOBattery can be sited just about anywhere. The CRYOBattery has a small footprint, even at multiple gigawatt-levels, and does not use hazardous materials.

Other locatable, long-duration energy storage technologies — such as lithium-ion — typically offer a range of four to eight hours of storage, whereas Highview Power’s CRYOBattery offers multiple gigawatt hours of storage, representing weeks’ worth of storage, not just hours or days.

Alex Eller, senior research analyst with Navigant Research, said, “Long-duration technologies such as cryogenic energy storage will become increasingly necessary for an electricity system to transition from a primary reliance on conventional fossil fuel generation to a grid dominated by variable renewable generation from solar and wind.”

“This is a pivotal moment for the renewable energy industry and for anyone who wants to deploy large amounts of renewables,” said Javier Cavada, president and CEO of Highview Power. “As more and more renewables are added to the grid, long-duration, giga-scale energy storage is the necessary foundation to make these intermittent sources of power reliable enough to become baseload.”

Cavada said Highview Power’s CRYOBattery can enable grid operators to maximize renewable penetration without needing fossil fuel generation to make up for intermittency. “This makes replacing gas peaker power plants with a combination of solar, wind, and energy storage a viable reality and truly sets the stage for a future where 100% of the world’s electricity comes from clean energy sources,” he said.

Over the last 15 years, Highview Power — through the design, construction, and operation of its CRYOBattery technology — has developed and optimized its own proprietary BLU core controller system. It enables a system to be configured to a particular application through the selection of individual operational modes. It also provides operation and performance monitoring feedback, ensuring a facility’s optimal efficiency. The system’s embedded flexibility further ensures that the controller has the built-in capacity to adapt as a facility’s demand varies with market development.

Highview Power has partnered with Finland-based Citec to modularize its gigawatt-scale cryogenic energy storage system. With a simplified design and streamlined engineering from Citec, a standard CRYOBattery configuration of 50 MW/500 MWh can be easily, and cost-effectively, scaled up to multiple gigawatt hours.

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