EnergyPathways (AIM: EPP), the UK energy transition company, is pleased to announce it has formally submitted an application for a Gas Storage Licence covering the natural gas and hydrogen storage elements of its flagship MESH project, located off the Cumbria coast in the East Irish Sea.
This follows the Company’s update on 26 September in which it announced that Ed Milliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, confirmed that MESH should be considered a development of national significance.
This new licence application spans an area with potential for up to 60 storage salt caverns for natural gas and hydrogen storage. This represents an almost fourfold increase in the area EnergyPathways is targeting for salt cavern development.
The Company intends to submit an application to the Secretary of State for a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the other elements of the MESH project.
Ben Clube, CEO of EnergyPathways, said:
“We are delighted to have formally submitted a natural gas and hydrogen storage licence application for MESH. Following the positive endorsement of MESH by the Secretary of State as a development of national significance, we are hopeful of receiving a decision on this application soon.
“If successful with its application, EnergyPathways plans to progress a hydrogen storage and transportation project which will be integrated with its 90 MW methane pyrolysis hydrogen production facility being developed in conjunction with KBR and Hazer*. The planned hydrogen storage will be able to supply the Company’s hydrogen-to-power system being developed with Siemens Energy**.
“The Company also plans to develop natural gas storage to help shore up the UK’s security of energy supply. The UK has meagre existing gas storage capacity. The Company considers this licence area, and the Irish Sea region more broadly, as having significant potential for large-scale economic development of natural gas storage.
“We look forward to updating the market in due course.”
* KBR Inc. and Hazer Limited
** Siemens Energy Global GmbH & Co. KG
About MESH
MESH will be a new, large scale, energy storage and decarbonisation facility that is expected to provide a secure and dependable supply of affordable low-carbon energy for the UK market for over 25 years.
The MESH integrated energy system solution comprises; large-scale Long Duration Energy Storage (“LDES”), flexible low-carbon power capacity and low-carbon hydrogen and graphite production with the potential to branch into low-carbon ammonia production. MESH will connect its LDES integrated storage system using existing infrastructure to the UK grid and nearby offshore wind capacity to help harness value from some of the billions of pounds of the UK’s wasted wind power.
The MESH system is designed to capture and store curtailed offshore wind power in offshore salt caverns as compressed air. The MESH energy storage system combines associated large-scale hydrogen, thermal and natural gas storage capacity in geo-storage features (the salt caverns). During periods of low renewable energy availability, the LDES stored energy resources will be utilised to generate low-carbon flexible power for the UK’s grid via compressed air expansion, thermal energy and hydrogen-compatible gas turbine systems to generate electricity.
The MESH facility will also produce affordable low-carbon hydrogen using methane pyrolysis technology for which EnergyPathways has exclusive rights of use within the UK. The hydrogen can be used to further decarbonise the MESH flexible power generation system using its hydrogen compatible gas turbine system. The by-product of the MESH hydrogen production facility is a high-grade form of synthetic graphite.
In addition to supplying dispatchable low-carbon electricity to the grid, MESH-produced hydrogen can support the UK’s emerging Project Union hydrogen network, contributing to broader emissions reductions across the energy system.
The MESH project is targeted to be operational by 2030, subject to government approvals and financing, in order to contribute to the Government’s 2030 Clean Power ambitions. EnergyPathways aims to play its role in supporting the Government in accelerating the UK’s energy transition.
Investor Engagement with EnergyPathways
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Enquiries
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Investor questions on this announcement |
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EnergyPathways |
Tel: +44 (0)207 466 5000, c/o Burson Buchanan (Financial PR) Email : info@energypathways.uk |
