EnergyPathways Irish Sea Limited has announced it is to be awarded a gas storage licence by the North Sea Transition Authority for its MESH project, located in the East Irish Sea and onshore in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
The MESH project is a planned long duration energy storage facility. It includes a natural gas storage facility that may become hydrogen storage, compressed air energy storage with 300MW / 55GWh of power generating capacity and hydrogen production capability.
The company said the gas storage licence spans a substantial offshore area in the East Irish Sea, that could support the construction of up to 60 large-scale, sub-surface salt storage caverns with potential for multi-terawatt hour energy storage, subject to consents and financing.
With this licence, EnergyPathways said it will accelerate the development of its large-scale gas storage facility. Its large-scale compressed air storage development recently began front-end engineering design.
EnergyPathways, with its Tier One partnership group, including Siemens Energy, Costain plc, Wood plc and Zenith Energy, plan to progress the MESH project to a Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2028 and start up by late 2031 (subject to planning and associated approvals).