EnergyPathways has secured a major regulatory milestone, with the North Sea Transition Authority set to award a Gas Storage Licence to its wholly owned subsidiary for the MESH project.
The licence paves the way for MESH to become Britain’s largest integrated energy storage facility.
The award covers a substantial offshore area in the East Irish Sea capable of hosting up to 60 large-scale salt caverns, opening the door to multi-terawatt-hour storage capacity, subject to consents and financing.
MESH’s natural gas storage element alone would double Britain’s gas storage capacity and provide around six days of national energy supply, with a deliverability of c. 15 million cubic metres per day.
Alongside it sits a planned 300 MW / 55 GWh compressed-air energy storage facility, set to be Britain’s largest long-duration energy storage asset, plus low-carbon dispatchable power generation and low-cost hydrogen production to feed planned industrial users in Barrow-in-Furness, including the company’s proposed graphite plant.
EnergyPathways is working with a Tier One partnership group of Siemens Energy, Costain, Wood and Zenith Energy, with FEED on the CAES component launched last week.
Final Investment Decision is targeted for 2028, with start-up by late 2031, and funding and capacity offtake discussions already underway.
Ben Clube, CEO of EnergyPathways, said: “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 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.”