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This is why Highview has been testing its 300-kilowatt pilot plant for the past nine months, supplying electricity to the UK's National Grid. The process stores excess energy at times of low demand by using it to cool air to around -190 °C. Excess electricity powers refrigerators that chill the air, and the resulting liquid air, or cryogen, is then stored in a tank at ambient pressure (1 bar). When electricity is needed, the cryogen is subjected to a pressure of 70 bars and warmed in a heat exchanger. This produces a high-pressure gas that drives a turbine to generate electricity. The cold air emerging from the turbine is captured and reused to make more cryogen. Using ambient heat to warm it, the process recovers around 50 per cent of the electricity that is fed in, says Highview's chief executive Gareth Brett. The efficiency rises to around 70 per cent if you harness waste heat from a nearby industrial or power plant to heat the cryogen to a higher than ambient temperature, which increases the turbine's force, he says. Unlike pumped-storage hydropower, which requires large reservoirs, the cryogen plants can be located anywhere, says Brett. Batteries under development in Japan have efficiencies of around 80 to 90 per cent, but cost around $4000 per kilowatt of generating capacity. Cryogenic storage would cost just $1000 per kilowatt because it requires fewer expensive materials, claims Brett.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate and professor emeritus of Physics at Stanford, returned to campus Monday to speak about the role of clean energy in combating global climate change. A sustainable energy revolution, he said, is not only vital in mitigating climate change, but is a critical step in ensuring U.S. economic competitiveness.

Today, the Commission launches "SETIS", the online Strategic Energy Technologies (SET-Plan) Information System, which provides the latest research results on the status, forecasts and R&D investment figures for low-carbon technologies. It underpins the effective strategic planning, conception and implementation of EU energy technology policy and serves notably to the implementation of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan). SETIS assesses and monitors those technologies that have a significant potential to help Europe meet its energy and climate change targets, such as wind power, solar power, CCS or bioenergy. The Information System offers interactive tools to compare the maximum potential and energy production costs foreseen for the different technologies over time.

Advanced Rail Energy Storage (ARES), is a Santa Barbara, California based company, providing a deployable solution for grid-scale energy storage. ARES mission is to enable the electric grid to integrate unprecedented amounts of clean, environmentally responsible, renewable energy while maintaining the reliable electric service necessary to power growth and prosperity. Since it's founding in February 2010, ARES has developed and filed both domestic and international patents for an advanced method of utility-scale electrical storage. ARES facilities are designed to: provide grid security and reliability; support the increased use of renewable technologies, and to provide an energy storage solution that does not rely on water.

The agreement is between the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers and was brokered by a wide variety of major environmental interests ranging from the NRDC to Earthjustice, and from the California Energy Commission to the Alliance to Save Energy. By cementing a preliminary agreement between environmental organizations and appliance manufacturers first, Senate obstruction of clean energy legislation is more easily bypassed.