NEWS & INSIGHTS | Opinion
Scottish innovation could change how we store renewable energy forever
Luca Corradi
Luca works to bring “the outside in”, connecting innovators and academics across sectors and disciplines, to explore the latest technologies that could be adopted to address oil and gas industry challenges. Leading The Net Zero Technology Centre’s horizon scanning activity, he identifies emerging technology trends, cutting through the hype to identify potential areas of impact and application. With a background in business and organisational change leadership, Luca has developed a strong network and is passionate about harnessing this to deliver the next generation of the net zero energy industry.
Outside work Luca loves reading, music and travel. He is married with two young daughters and a dog. He enjoys the rare motorbike ride in Scotland and even rarer ski trip on the Alps.
This week’s net zero news: Future Energy Scenarios; National Pricing Reform; Liquid Air Energy Storage
Chief Technology Officer at NZTC, Luca Corradi, and his team closely monitor the global net zero landscape. They follow the trends, policies, investments, and technological innovations that, together, bring the world closer to its shared climate goals. Learn more about our horizon scanning service. This week, Luca and his team look at recommendations to achieve net zero by 2050, reformed national pricing system, and funding for a liquid air energy storage system.
NESO’s ‘The Future Energy Scenarios to Net Zero’ explores three routes to net zero in 2050 and recommends actions to achieve these
The Future Energy Scenarios (FES) considers four scenarios to 2050, three which achieve net zero and one that falls short. So far most of the work to reduce emissions has come from decarbonising electricity, but other sectors now need to accelerate efforts. Decarbonised power will unlock routes for other sectors to decarbonise with the pathways seeing power demand increase from 287 TWh today to 705-797 TWh in 2050.
Affordable low carbon hydrogen is an important enabler for the decarbonisation of several sectors.
The pathways project a demand between 50-200 TWh of hydrogen needed by 2040. This is lower compared to the 2024 FES projections, partly because they assume ammonia for shipping fuel will be imported rather than produced domestically.
By 2050, the pathways call for capturing over 65 million tonnes of CO₂ annually through CCS. Technologies like BECCS and DAC will be essential to cut emissions from hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation and agriculture.
The Future Energy Scenarios report identifies four critical enablers to achieve net zero:
Energy efficiency – to reduce demand growth and energy costs.
Demand flexibility – can lower consumer costs and support renewable generation. Greater demand side flexibility means less investment in infrastructure and storage.
Infrastructure and energy supply – clean and resilient energy relies on infrastructure expansion across electricity, gas, bioenergy, hydrogen and CO2 transport and storage.
Switching to low carbon technologies – adoption of low carbon technologies is critical to enable decarbonisation, particularly for heating, transport and industry.
The 2030 NDC reflects a 68% reduction in territorial greenhouse gas emission compared to 1990 levels. As of the end of 2023, we have achieved a 53% reduction.
Source: NESO’s The Future Energy Scenarios to Net Zero
Following an extensive consultation process, the UK government will not go ahead with zonal pricing but will reform the existing national pricing system
Instead of introducing zonal pricing, the UK government plans to reform the existing national pricing system. Zonal pricing would have divided the system into geographic zones based on proximity to energy generation.
Key parts of the reformed national package include:
Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) – The SSEP will be at the heart of the reform package and will be published by the end of 2026. For the first time the plan will set out how to best spread new energy projects across Britain up to 2050.
Transmission charges – Generators currently pay higher Transmission Network Use of System charges when they rely on the transmission network to deliver power to where it’s needed. To encourage investment in strategically located generation, the government is partnering with Ofgem to review these charges and strengthen incentives for building generation where demand is highest. This includes changes to make existing charges more predictable for investors, as currently the charges vary year by year.
Improving efficiency of the power system – The government is already working with industry to upgrade grid infrastructure and minimise constraint payments. The government will launch a consultation considering potential measures, including allowing small storage assets to offer greater flexibility to the grid by participating in the balance mechanism.
Graphic of the policies forming part of the reformed national pricing package.
Source: www.gov.uk
Prisma have secured funding to develop their PRISMA Advanced Liquid Air Energy Storage system
Scottish-based Innovatium has secured £3 million from Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems and the Scottish National Investment Bank to accelerate the deployment of its award-winning PRISMA™ Advanced Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) system.
PRISMA provides a long-duration and flexible energy storage solution for energy intensive businesses.
It aims to balance intermittent renewable energy generation in a safer, more cost-effective and environmentally friendly way than lithium-ion batteries.
Built primarily from fully recyclable materials, this technology uses off-peak electricity to cool and liquefy compressed air. A specially formulated material inside the thermal storage vessel stores the air at -150°C. When power is needed, the system rapidly converts the stored liquid back into compressed air to generate electricity. Proven in industrial settings, it cuts energy costs and CO₂ emissions by up to 30% per site.
PRISMA Advanced Liquid Air Energy (LAES) system
Source: www.innovatium.co.uk
Subscribe for the latest updates
