England-based energy transition-focused player EnergyPathways is awaiting the award of a gas storage license (GSL) from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) in connection with the firm’s flagship energy storage project off the Cumbria coast in the East Irish Sea.
EnergyPathways has revealed that its wholly owned subsidiary, EnergyPathways Irish Sea, is to be awarded a gas storage license by the North Sea Transition Authority related to its Marram Energy Storage Hub (MESH) project .
The company claims that this decision marks a major milestone for its plans to develop the wider MESH project in the East Irish Sea and onshore in Barrow-in-Furness. This project is expected to be Britain’s largest integrated energy storage facility.
The firm explains that the GSL to be awarded spans a substantial offshore area that could support the construction of up to 60 large-scale salt storage caverns with potential for multi-terawatt-hour scale energy storage, subject to the necessary consents and financing.
Ben Clube , CEO of EnergyPathways, commented: “I am delighted that we have met the NSTA’s criteria to offer EnergyPathways this crucial gas storage licence, one of only a handful of energy licence awards in the last two years. The current Middle East crisis serves as a stark reminder of Britain’s limited energy storage capacity that leaves it vulnerable to global supply shocks and the resulting impact of higher energy bills.
“The UK government recognises MESH and other forms of long duration energy storage as having a vital role in lowering energy prices, bolstering energy security and achieving a clean energy system.”
With this license in hand, EnergyPathways will accelerate the development of its large-scale gas storage facility to complement the company’s ongoing large-scale CAES long-duration energy storage development for which the launch of the front-end engineering and design (FEED) scope was announced last week.
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The planned MESH project, which has already been designated by the UK government as a project of ‘national significance,’ will comprise compressed air energy storage (CAES), natural gas storage transitioning to hydrogen storage, and complementary hydrogen production for clean power and sustainable industry uses.
EnergyPathways plans a natural gas storage facility that will double Britain’s meagre gas storage capacity and provide up to six days of national energy supply, securing the UK’s energy future and reducing its over-dependence on expensive gas imports.
The facility is anticipated to provide high deliverability rates of around 15 million cubic meters per day for rapid grid backup supply. The company’s CAES storage of 300 MW/55 GWh capacity is expected to be Britain’s largest LDES facility.
The company underlines that the low-carbon dispatchable power generation will be far cheaper than the expensive gas-fired power upon which Britain relies and which sets the power prices for all of the UK’s electricity, including renewables.
The low-cost hydrogen production capability will be used to further decarbonize MESH dispatchable power and new sustainable industries planned in Barrow-in-Furness, including the proposed graphite production plant.
EnergyPathways, along with its Tier One partnership group, including Siemens Energy, Costain, Wood, and Zenith Energy, will now progress the MESH project to a final investment decision (FID) in 2028 and start-up by late 2031. The firm has already initiated several funding and capacity offtake discussions.
Clube outlined: “With the award of this licence EnergyPathways will now move at pace to get to FID as quickly as possible. Both the gas storage and CAES storage will each be commercially viable in their own right, however there are several synergies and cost efficiencies between the two projects that can now be secured.
“I look forward to working closely with our team and our partners in the months ahead and will continue to update shareholders as milestones are achieved.”