Liquid Air Energy Storage: The Forgotten Technology Ready to Power the Future
After nearly five decades of being overlooked, liquid air energy storage is finally stepping into the spotlight. The world’s first commercial-scale facility, located near Carrington in northwest England, is set to power up in 2026, offering a revolutionary approach to storing renewable energy.
As global demand for clean electricity soars — surpassing coal for the first time — the need for reliable energy storage has never been greater. Traditional grid-scale lithium batteries and pumped hydro systems dominate the market, but engineers and clean energy advocates believe a more sustainable solution lies in air itself.
A New Way to Store Clean Energy
The upcoming Carrington facility, developed by Highview Power, will use renewable electricity to compress and cool air until it becomes liquid. This liquid air will be stored in large insulated tanks until energy demand rises. When the grid needs power, the liquid air is released, warmed, and expanded back into gas, driving turbines to generate electricity — a process that produces zero emissions.
If successful, this technology could reshape the global energy landscape, helping countries transition away from fossil fuels and solve the intermittency challenges of solar and wind power.
“Liquid air storage could finally bridge the gap between renewable generation and consistent supply,” says Shaylin Cetegen, a chemical engineer at MIT, who studies advanced energy storage systems.
The Challenge of Intermittent Renewables
Switching from fossil fuels to renewables is essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But solar and wind energy are intermittent — the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow. This creates fluctuations in supply that can cause grid instability and power shortages.
To balance the grid, excess renewable energy must be stored efficiently and released when demand is high. For decades, pumped hydro storage has served as the backbone of grid-scale energy storage. Surplus electricity is used to pump water uphill, which is then released through turbines when needed.
Globally, pumped hydro capacity reached 160 gigawatts in 2021, while lithium-ion battery storage skyrocketed from just 1GW in 2013 to over 80GW in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
However, both methods have limitations: hydro storage requires suitable geography, and large-scale lithium batteries are expensive, degrade over time, and rely on environmentally harmful mining practices.
The Liquid Air Solution
Liquid air energy storage offers a cleaner, scalable, and more flexible alternative. The concept, first developed in 1977, has gained traction only in recent years as renewable adoption surges worldwide.
The process has three key stages:
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Intake and Compression: Ambient air is drawn in, purified, and compressed under extremely high pressure.
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Cooling and Liquefaction: The compressed air is cooled using a multi-stream heat exchanger, transforming it into liquid form.
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Energy Recovery: When electricity is needed, the liquid air is reheated, expanded, and used to drive turbines — releasing stored energy back into the grid.
This method can achieve up to 70% efficiency when thermal recovery systems are integrated. “The process stores not just energy but also the heat generated during compression, which can later be reused,” explains Cetegen.
Carrington’s Landmark Project
The Carrington site will be the world’s first commercial-scale liquid air energy storage plant. Building on a successful pilot in Pilsbury, Highview Power’s facility will store 300 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy — enough to supply power to approximately 480,000 homes for short periods during peak demand.
Construction will be completed in phases. In August 2026, the plant’s turbine will start operations to help stabilize the UK’s electricity grid. Currently, the grid often relies on gas-fired power stations for frequency balancing — a costly and carbon-intensive solution.
By 2027, the liquid air system will be fully operational, storing and releasing power as needed. “Our goal is to make fossil fuel backup obsolete,” says Highview Power CEO Richard Butland. “This project will prove that liquid air storage can deliver clean, reliable, and scalable energy to millions.”
Can It Compete Economically?
While the environmental benefits are clear, cost remains a major hurdle. According to a March 2024 MIT study, liquid air systems are currently viable in only a few U.S. regions, such as Florida and Texas, under the most aggressive decarbonization scenarios.
However, researchers believe this will change as renewable energy penetration increases. As grids become more reliant on solar and wind, energy price volatility will rise, creating more opportunities for energy storage systems to turn a profit.
Cetegen notes that the challenge lies in the early years, when renewable generation is still ramping up. “In the beginning, there isn’t enough excess renewable power to make storage highly profitable,” she says. “But as the energy mix shifts, these systems become essential.”
Government incentives can also make a big difference. Subsidizing initial capital costs or guaranteeing minimum returns can help jump-start projects and attract private investors.
Scaling Up for a Global Rollout
Highview Power is already planning two additional UK sites, as well as large-scale facilities in Japan and Australia. Future plants could reach storage capacities of 2.5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) — nearly ten times larger than Carrington’s.
Thanks to simple scalability, liquid air storage becomes cheaper as it expands. The storage tanks themselves are relatively inexpensive, and the levelized cost of storage (LCOS) is projected to fall as low as $45 per megawatt-hour, compared with $120 for pumped hydro and $175 for lithium-ion batteries.
The UK government has backed the Carrington project through a “cap and floor” policy, ensuring a minimum rate of return for investors. According to Butland, this arrangement boosts investor confidence without burdening taxpayers. “We expect every project to exceed the minimum return, so the government won’t actually need to pay out,” he explains.
A Cleaner Future on the Horizon
Liquid air energy storage could be the missing piece in the global renewable puzzle. It is sustainable, scalable, and free from the supply chain challenges tied to lithium or rare metals.
“Manchester will set the global standard,” says Butland. “Once the technology proves itself, we’ll see a wave of similar projects worldwide.”
As nations race to decarbonize and strengthen their grids, the success of Carrington’s liquid air plant could mark the beginning of a new era in clean energy storage — one where even the air we breathe becomes a source of sustainable power.