A CLEAN technology firm has been awarded a £3 million investment from the Scottish National Investment Bank to help it develop an alternative to battery storage.
East Kilbride-based Innovatium will use the grant to accelerate work on its alternative to lithium-ion batteries for the storage of renewable energy.
The PRISMA Advanced Liquid Air Energy Storage system has been designed to use off-peak electricity to cool and liquefy compressed air – and then convert that liquid energy back into compressed air to generate power when needed.
The company says the system “aims to resolve the intermittency and fluctuating supply issues seen in renewable energy generation” and hopes to create 30 jobs in Scotland over the next four years.
Hitachi Industrial Equipment Solutions (HIES) has also invested, making it's first investment in a Scottish company., and will open international opportunities for the firm.
Brian Jack, CEO of Innovatium Group, said: “We’ve entered a new and very exciting growth phase for us which includes immediate plans to expand our team, advance PRISMA technology, and build additional depth within the business to meet rising demand from customers.
“This investment gives us the platform to scale-up significantly and we can now offer a much broader portfolio of solutions, creating new value for our customers in the UK and globally. We have never been better placed to deliver solutions to support the energy transition.”
Ailsa Young, investment director at the Scottish National Investment Bank said: “Innovatium’s novel, patented technology is highly scalable and has the potential to significantly reduce industrial carbon emissions across a range of energy-intensive industries, including data centres where the rapid acceleration of AI has caused environmental concern.
“As an impact investor, we were attracted to Innovatium’s potential to be a driver of Scotland’s net-zero economy, and we are pleased to be investing alongside Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems, which will also be supporting the commercial rollout of PRISMA.”
