Liquid air energy storage project proposed for St. Clair Township

An open house is planned Monday to provide information about a liquid air energy storage project proposed for St. Clair Township.

Article content An open house is planned Monday to provide information about a liquid air energy storage project proposed for St. Clair Township. Toronto-based NRStor is hosting the open house from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Moore Sports Complex, Emily Street, Mooretown. Recommended Videos The company plans to submit a proposal later this year to the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator for the project, said Ines Ribeiro Canella, director of project development for NRStor.

“The base-case size will be 100 MW,” she said. The company is looking at potential sites in the township, Ribeiro Canella said. “We’re in active discussions with landowners.”

About 6 hectares (15 acres) of land is expected to be needed. The technology uses components that are used in other technologies but the combination of their use for energy storage is a “relatively new concept,” she said. It uses electricity in periods when demand is low to cool ambient air and store it as a liquid in large, insulated tanks.

To provide electricity back to the grid when needed, the liquid air is warmed to become gas again and run through a turbine. “It’s kind of like a battery where you take electricity off the grid when there’s extra and then you put it on the grid when it’s needed to meet the demand.” Ribeiro Canella said.

The technology doesn’t create waste water or emissions “aside from ambient air,” she said. St Clair Township “is a great place to site the project” because skills needed to operate the site are similar to existing local industries. There’s also capacity on power lines in the area for the proposed storage site, Ribeiro Canella said.

The company is still “costing out” the project, as well as estimating how many jobs it could create, but a 50MW facility in the UK is expected to employ 10 to 15 full-time workers with 15 to 20 subcontractors, and result in 350 construction jobs. Following the public meeting, the company expects to seek a support resolution from the township council, Ribeiro Canella said. Plans for the project have been presented to council where the concept was “well received,” she said.

In 2012, NRStor was proposing to build a 2MW flywheel energy storage project at the Lambton Generation Station land near Courtright to showcase the technology, but the following year the company said it was instead considering a different site in Ontario. Project team members will attend Monday’s open house to provide information and answer questions about the liquid air energy storage proposal, Ribeiro Canella said.