Energy storage firm Highview Power Inc. named David Sandalow chairman of the company’s U.S. unit.
The former senior White House, U.S. State Department, and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) official has been a senior advisor to Highview Power as the company develops and deploys utility-scale liquid air energy storage systems in North America.
“Large-scale, long-duration energy storage will play an important role in the grid of the future,’’ said Sandalow. “Highview Power’s liquid air energy storage technology provides a cheap, environmentally-friendly way to manage variable renewable power, relieve transmission congestion, and provide additional grid services. I look forward to working with the exceptional team at Highview Power during a very exciting time for the energy storage and renewable energy industries.”
Sandalow is the Inaugural Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He writes and speaks widely on energy policy and has served as Honorary Chair of the U.S. Energy Storage Association’s annual conference. From 2009-2013, Sandalow served in senior positions in the U.S. Department of Energy, where he helped oversee the department’s renewable energy, energy efficiency, fossil energy, nuclear energy, and electricity delivery programs with an annual budget of more than $3.5 billion.
Highview Power’s proprietary liquid air energy storage technology is based on the principle of air liquefaction, which enables the easy storage of gases in cryogenic liquid form. The process involves a 700-fold expansion in volume from liquid back to gas, which releases the stored energy, powering turbines and generating electricity.
This enables Highview’s system to store energy in increments measured in days rather than hours, at half the cost of lithium-ion batteries when deployed at scale, with no siting constraints, and while releasing zero emissions in the process. It uses technology with an economic useful life of over 30 years. The company has already deployed two plants in the UK, the latest the 5 MW/15 MWh Pilsworth LAES plant that was officially launched in June.
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