Highview Power Partners with Citec to Modularize its Gigawatt-Hour Scale Cryogenic Energy Storage Systems

Highview Power, the global leader in long-duration energy storage solutions, announced today that it has partnered with Finland-based Citec, a global engineering firm specializing in industrial plants and projects, to modularize its gigawatt-scale cryogenic energy storage system. With a simplified design and streamlined engineering from Citec, a standard plant configuration of 50 MW/500 MWh can be easily and cost-effectively scaled up to multiple gigawatt hours, or down, without limitation.

“Last year, we launched the world’s first grid-scale liquid air energy storage plant, and in 2019 we will be commercializing our long-duration energy storage solutions globally,” said Javier Cavada, President and CEO of Highview Power. “Modularizing our liquid air technology will help us deploy our systems more efficiently and cost-effectively, providing an attractive advantage for project developers and investors.”

The company is working on multiple projects in both Europe and the U.S., with construction expected to begin this year.

Highview Power selected Citec as its engineering partner because of the company’s proven track record of modularizing industrial plant products, as well as the global resources and a strong understanding of delivering engineering projects around the globe. The first modular solution will be designed with a standard configuration of 50 MW/500 MWh and can then be customized to the individual needs for varying storage capacities.

“This first project is to develop a modular solution for one storage capacity, and from this basis, repeated projects with localization and for varying storage capacities will be developed,” said Johan Westermarck, CEO, Citec. “We are very excited to begin work on this first project – both parties’ ambition is to create and establish a long-term partnership. The business cooperation with Highview Power is strategically important as it brings Citec to the frontline of new energy solutions that are eagerly needed to balance the increasing solar and wind production capacity.”

Replacing Fossil Fuels
As momentum builds toward adding more renewable energy sources to the power grid, giga-scale energy storage is the necessary foundation to make these intermittent sources of power reliable enough to become the baseload and reach a target of 100 percent renewable power. “Our cryogenic energy storage systems are equivalent in performance to – and could replace – a fossil fuel power station,” said Cavada. Highview Power’s system can also support electricity and distribution systems while providing additional security of supply.

Highview Power’s proprietary cryogenic energy storage technology makes use of a freely available resource – air – which is cooled and stored as a liquid and then converted back to a gas to generate energy that powers turbines and produces electricity. Highview Power enables critical operations for utilities and independent power producers by delivering the lowest cost clean energy storage solution for large scale, long-duration applications.