White & Case advises Highview Power on £300 million investment round to develop one of the world’s largest liquid air energy storage plants

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Highview Power, a long-duration energy storage pioneer with proprietary cryogenic energy storage technology, on a £300 million combined debt and equity investment for the first in its pipeline of commercial-scale liquid air energy storage (LAES) plants in the UK.

Richard Butland, Co-Founder & CEO of Highview Power said: “We are delighted to have the support of the White & Case team in bringing about this strategic investment partnership. Our first project in Carrington will be the foundation for our full-scale roll-out in the UK and expansion with partners to share this British technology internationally.”

“We have supported Highview Power on this landmark energy transition project,” said White & Case partner Kamran Ahmad, who led the Firm’s deal team “It is brilliant to see LAES technology developed in the UK almost 20 years ago deployed. It promises to revolutionize energy systems by offering generators and grid operators long duration storage capacity.”

The £300 million debt and equity funding round was led by the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and Centrica alongside an equity syndicate of existing and new investors including Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Rio Tinto, Goldman Sachs, KIRKBI and Mosaic Capital.

The investment will enable construction of one of the world’s largest LAES plants in Carrington, Manchester. Once complete, the plant will have a storage capacity of 300 MWh and an output power of 50 MW per hour for six hours.

Given the potential of LAES to reduce curtailment costs across the sector, Highview Power intends to accelerate the roll-out of larger scale 2.5 GWh facilities, with an anticipated investment of £3 billion, across the UK.

The White & Case team in London which advised on the transaction was led by partner Kamran Ahmad and included partners Jonah Anderson, Nicholas Greenacre, Tim Hickman, Katie Hicks, Richard Hill, Marc Israel and Will Smith, counsel Lis Blunsdon and associates Jonathan Toffolo, Jake Seal, Yoon So Lee, Kate Kelliher and Sofia Wake-Walker.

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