The Achilles heel of renewable energies is that of production in unfavorable environmental conditions to produce it and that of the difficulty of storing it when production exceeds consumption. There is a technology called CryoBattery that overcomes this age-old accumulation problem.

British energy storage scores a new point. In fact, work has begun in Manchester on one of the largest electricity storage plants in Europe. The project bears the name of CRYOBattery ™ and the signature of two companies: Highview Power and Carlton Power.

In June this year, Highview Power received a £ 10 million grant from the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ( BEIS) with which to finance the creation of an innovative cryogenic storage. The plant will be built in Trafford Energy Park, not far from Manchester, and when fully operational it will boast a power of 50 MW and a capacity of 250 MWh. And as Javier Cavada, CEO and president of the company explains, “it will provide the national grid with clean, reliable and cost-effective long-term storage.

CRYOBattery ™ will help the UK integrate renewable energy and stabilize the regional electricity grid to ensure future energy security during blackouts and other outages. "

Beyond the size, the most representative element of the system is the technology used. CRYOBattery is based on a process called air liquefaction.

When there is a surplus of production , electricity is used to suck, compress and then cool the air until temperatures of -196 ° C. In this way, from the gaseous state to the liquid state, the mixture can be stored in insulated tanks at low pressure.

When the demand for energy in the network increases, liquid air can be heated and rapidly expanded into gas, to drive an electric turbine. The advantages of this approach are the scalability and the ability to offer long-term energy storage compared to traditional batteries.

The visitor center will be inaugurated in the first quarter of 2021 to allow everyone to follow "closely" the progress of the work and take virtual tours .

CRYOBattery ™ will go into operation in 2023 and will use existing substations and transmission infrastructures. The cryogenic storage system will also offer valuable features including voltage control, grid balancing and synchronous inertia.