Heather Wright/The Independent

St. Clair Township is backing a proposed Liquid Air Energy Storage project which could hold up to 200 megawatts of electricity for 10 hours to support the province’s power needs.

The Independent Electricity Supply Operator is looking for long-term, clean energy electricity storage projects and NRStor is working on a project which they hope to put on industrial land in St. Clair Township.

Company spokesperson Inês Ribeiro Canella was at St. Clair Township council Monday to give more details about the project which was introduced to council in May.

The company is planning an air energy storage facility which looks like a small industrial plant. It takes ambient air, liquefies it, and cool it, for storage. The excess heat is kept aside to turn the captured air into gas which is heated, passes through a turbine that then puts electricity onto the grid.

Ribeiro Canella told council in May the proposed plant has no emissions and no waste water treatment would be required for the plant.

Last week, NRStor and its project partner, Sumitomo held a public meeting to talk about the project.

Monday, Riberio Canella laid out more information for St. Clair council, saying they hope to build one of the largest plants of its kind storing 200 MW of power.

“The final footprint of the built area would be 20 acres maximum,” she says.

“It’s emissions free. The only emission is really noise,” she said adding the company would make sure it didn’t exceed Ontario’s noise regulations.

During the open house, residents wanted to be assured the plant would be in the industrial area of the township, which it will be. Riberio Canella says the company is currently looking at a site “not too far from the Lambton Generating Station.”

Residents also were concerned about the amount of water to be used. “There’s no ongoing water requirement aside for making up for evaporative losses, and I’ve recently learned that for the closed loop system, the amount of water is equivalent to about 1.2 Olympic size swimming pools,” Riberio Canella said.

Councillors were supportive of the project.

“I think this is a good proposal. It’s clean for the environment and emissions free,” said Councillor Pat Brown before council approved a municipal support resolution. “Hopefully you’re successful. I’m certainly looking for job creation and for local trades and operating staff that be required to operate this plant.”