Highview Power and Energía Latina SA (Enlasa) have formed a joint venture to advance cryogenic energy storage in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America.

The joint venture, Highview Enlasa, will bring Highview Power’s long duration ‘CRYOBattery’ energy storage system to the Latin American market to pair with renewable energy sources to enable them to serve as baseload power.

Such a system is stated to have a performance equivalent to thermal and nuclear power.

“We are excited to work with Enlasa to bring Highview’s technology to Chile,” said Javier Cavada, CEO and President of Highview Power in a statement.

“Together, our two companies can harness the growing deployment of renewables in Chile and across Latin America and bring renewable baseload power to the region, all without the geographic constraints associated with other energy storage technologies.”

Highview Power is a UK headquartered developer of long duration energy storage solutions. Enlasa is the largest backup power generation provider in Chile.

“Through our partnership with Highview Power we are on the leading edge of providing innovative energy storage solutions to Latin America,” adds Rodrigo Sáez, CEO of Enlasa.

Highview Power’s cryogenic technology provides long duration storage potential with outputs from 10MW to greater than 200MW with a capacity greater than 2,000MWh.

The technology uses liquid air as the storage medium, hence it also being known as liquid air energy storage. The technology is able to provide services including time shifting, synchronous voltage support, frequency regulation and reserves, synchronous inertia and black start capabilities.

Moreover, unlike other long duration storage options such as pumped hydro or compressed air, the CRYOBattery is modular and can be sited just about anywhere.

The technology is relatively young – the first CRYObattery was unveiled in mid-2019 – but developments already under way include a 50MW/250MWh facility in the north of England and a minimum 50MW scale facility in the US.

Highview Power and Enlasa believe that a CRYOBattery plant in Chile, with its excellent solar irradiation potential, would serve as a great business case for the region.