The world's largest 60-MW liquid air energy storage project in Golmud, Northwest China's Qinghai Province Photo: Courtesy of CGDG

A 60-megawatt (MW) liquid air energy storage project in Northwest China was connected to the grid and started generating power on Friday, marking a major breakthrough in the engineering and commercialization of liquid air energy storage technology, CCTV News reported on Saturday.

The project, located in Golmud, Northwest China's Qinghai Province, was invested in and built by China Green Development Investment Group (CGDG) and is now the world’s largest liquid air energy storage facility by installed capacity, the company said.

The project marks a milestone in China’s push to develop storage technologies that can help support a power system with a growing share of renewable energy.

The facility has a total installed capacity of 60 MW and is expected to absorb about 600,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity a day, according to the company. It is projected to generate around 180 million kilowatt-hours each year, enough to meet the annual electricity demand of roughly 30,000 households.

Liquid air energy storage is an emerging long-duration storage technology that uses electricity to compress and cool air until it becomes liquid during periods of low demand. When power is needed, the liquid air is warmed and expanded to drive turbines and generate electricity.

The technology does not require the geographic conditions needed for pumped hydro storage and is seen as having advantages over batteries in scale, storage duration and service life. 
 
CGDG said the Golmud project uses a deep-cooling liquefaction process at minus 194 degrees Celsius and has achieved full domestic localization of equipment, with 100 percent of components made in China. The company also said the project incorporates technology over which it holds independent intellectual property rights.

The company said the project ranks first globally in both storage power and storage capacity in the liquid air energy storage sector.

Ji Wei, chief engineer at CGDG, said the project had completed the full process of “compression, liquefaction, storage and power generation” and achieved coordinated scheduling of cold, heat, electricity, and gas flows, according to CCTV News.

During construction, the project team developed several large-scale pieces of equipment, including the world’s largest horizontally split centrifugal compressor and a liquid expander with the largest single-unit flow rate, Ji said.

The project is expected to support renewable energy absorption, peak shaving for thermal power plants and the use of liquefied natural gas cold energy, according to the company. 

With the project now online, China is moving a step closer to building a new-type power system in which new energy serves as the mainstay of supply, according to analysts. It fills multiple gaps in large-scale engineering applications of liquid air energy storage worldwide, offering a replicable model for the scaled application of long-duration storage technology and the cultivation of a complete industrial chain — a significant step toward China's dual carbon goals.

China’s installed capacity of new energy storage reached 136 gigawatts by the end of 2025, marking an 84 percent increase year-on-year and a massive 40-fold expansion compared to the end of 2020, according to a report issued by the National Energy Administration.

Global Times