The UK is now home to the world’s first liquid air energy storage (LAES) plant, in what could prove a major breakthrough for global power markets.

Highview Power switched on its LAES plant at Bury, near Manchester, making it the first such plant to demonstrate the technology at grid-scale.

Proponents of LAES technology say it could be a major rival for storage technologies such as batteries, thanks to its potential to deliver lower cost storage over lengthy time periods. LAES operations can last for 40 years, far longer than most battery technologies. The technology works by cooling air to -196C to turn it into liquid form, allowing it to be stored in high pressure tanks. When extra power is needed, the liquid is pumped and heated to turn it back into a gas, where it can be used to drive electricity turbines, according to businessgreen.com.

“The plant is the only large scale, true long-duration, locatable energy storage technology available today, at acceptable cost,” said Highview Power CEO Gareth Brett. “The adoption of LAES technology is now underway, and discussions are progressing with utilities around the world who see the opportunity for LAES to support the transition to a low-carbon world.”

The 5MW/15MWh Highview project will be used by grid aggregator Kiwi Power to provide on-demand energy to the national grid. It has the capacity to power about 5,000 average-sized homes for around three hours, Highview said, but the firm insisted the technology can scale to hundreds of megawatts to meet the energy demand of even large cities.