Plans for what is said to be the UK’s largest long duration energy storage facility – located in the East Irish Sea and Barrow-in-Furness – have taken a major step forward.
EnergyPathways, an energy transition company, has completed pre-FEED studies with Siemens Energy which confirm the economic viability of its planned CAES project.
A Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) process is now underway to progress the project to final investment decision during 2028.
FEED will be funded by a £15m financing agreement.
The project forms part of the company’s wider MESH energy project, which also comprises a large-scale natural gas and hydrogen storage facility and a low-carbon hydrogen production plant.
The MESH project has been designated as a project of “national significance” by the energy secretary.
The £15m financing agreement has been secured with a global institutional investor to fund development activities in relation to EnergyPathways’ large-scale MESH energy storage project.
Ben Clube, chief executive of EnergyPathways, said: “This project, when brought online, will be an invaluable asset for the UK’s electricity network and will help deliver the objective for a clean energy system.
“Importantly, we expect UK consumers will see the benefits of our CAES project through lower power bills. By harnessing Britain’s abundant wasted wind power, it can be used to produce low-cost dispatchable power to reduce our dependency on expensive gas imports for our power supply.
“Our CAES project creates the infrastructure to store and redistribute our nation’s growing surplus of renewable energy and dispatch it in periods of low wind, electricity scarcity or high demand. Critically, our CAES project will be able to dispatch power over long periods, in excess of 7 days, making it a reliable source of power when renewables are not available.
“The CAES project will be a low-cost development that adds little to no additional subsidy cost onto taxpayers and consumers for it to be developed. Critically it has been designed as a modular system and so similar projects can be rolled out across the UK creating a credible pathway to domestic energy self-sufficiency.
“I look forward to working closely with our team, external advisors, investors and project stakeholders to take the CAES project to fruition as quickly as possible.”
