Highview, TSK form JV to build GWh-scale cryogenic storage

UK firm Highview Power and Spanish engineering company TSK have agreed to form a joint venture (JV) to develop long-duration energy storage projects in Spain, the Middle East and South Africa.

The partners expect the new company -- Highview TSK -- to generate over EUR 1 billion (USD 1.13bn) of revenues over three years. It will build gigawatt-hour scale projects using Highview Power’s proprietary cryogenic energy storage technology, which can provide weeks’ worth of storage.

TSK and Highview say that at giga-scale, energy storage systems paired with renewable energy capacities could replace thermal and nuclear baseload generation. The companies have identified a number of projects which they want to develop by 2022, representing several GWh of storage capacity.

Highview has already installed and put online two cryogenic energy storage plants in the UK. The first one, of 2.5 MWh, was commissioned in 2014 in Slough, Greater London. A much bigger facility, of 15 MWh, was opened in 2018 in Bury, Greater Manchester, and is described as the world's first grid-scale liquid air energy storage (LAES) plant.

The energy storage firm is currently developing a number of projects across the US and Europe.

“This partnership with TSK will help Highview Power accelerate momentum for our cryogenic energy storage systems in global markets and is ideal for applications like renewable energy shifting, enabling wind and solar for baseload generation, and hybridizing cryogenic storage plants with traditional thermal generation systems,” said Javier Cavada, chief executive of Highview.

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