World's Largest 60MW Liquid Air Energy Storage National Demonstration Project Successfully Connected to Grid and Power Generation

On October 30, the world's largest 60MW liquid air energy storage national demonstration project, invested and constructed by China Green Power Investment Group Co., Ltd., successfully went online and began power generation in the city of Germe, Qinghai Province. This project is a national energy authority pilot demonstration project for new energy storage and the first major technical equipment in the energy sector. It marks China's full mastery of liquid air energy storage technology, core equipment, and full-chain autonomous controllability, achieving a major breakthrough in taking the technology from laboratory to engineering and commercialization.

The project adopts a core ultra-low temperature deep cooling liquefaction process at -194°C, using air as the only working medium, to simultaneously store and release electrical and cold energy under constant pressure and ultra-low temperature conditions. Compared with traditional storage methods, this technology does not depend on special geological conditions, is inherently safe, environmentally friendly, and highly flexible, featuring significant advantages including large-scale capacity, long duration, and long lifespan. It drives the liquid air energy storage system to achieve leapfrog development from hundreds of kilowatts to tens of thousands of kilowatts.

The project holds complete independent intellectual property rights, with 100% domestic equipment manufacturing, and its storage power and capacity rank first globally in the liquid air energy storage field. Multiple core performance indicators have reached world-leading levels. Through a “low valley storage, peak usage” operation mode, the project effectively alleviates the bottleneneck of high volatility and difficulty in local consumption of wind and photovoltaic power, significantly enhancing the regulation capability and operational resilience of new energy power systems.

To facilitate engineering implementation, the project collaborated with upstream and downstream industry units to jointly overcome technical challenges, successfully developing a series of industry-first major equipment: • The primary centrifugal compressor is the world’s largest horizontal split centrifugal compressor; • The liquid expansion machine has the world’s largest single-unit liquid mass flow rate; • The air purification system efficiently removes water, carbon dioxide, and other impurities to ensure long-term stable operation of the deep cooling system. The project also deeply integrates multiple subsystems, including compressor control, expansion machine control, process control, safety instrumented systems, and combustible/toxic gas detection, achieving precise end-to-end control of the "compression—liquefaction—storage—power generation" process and real-time coordination of multi-energy flows ("cold—heat—electricity—gas") to reinforce the safety barrier of the energy storage station through intelligent means.

Article headline for context: World's Largest 60MW Liquid Air Energy Storage National Demonstration Project Successfully Connected to Grid and Power Generation

The successful grid connection of this project fills multiple global gaps in large-scale liquid air energy storage engineering applications, holding significant demonstration value for accelerating the construction of a new power system and building a clean, low-carbon power supply system dominated by new energy. As a benchmark practice for large-scale application of long-duration energy storage technology in China, the project provides a replicable, scalable, and implementable “Chinese solution” for the entire energy storage industry chain, with profound implications for advancing energy transition and supporting the realization of the “dual carbon” strategic goals.