EnergyPathways PLC (AIM:EPP) shares rose 24% to 9.7p on Wednesday after the UK energy transition company was awarded a gas storage licence by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) for its MESH project in the East Irish Sea.
The Gas Storage Licence (GSL) covers a substantial offshore area capable of supporting up to 60 large-scale salt caverns, with the potential for multi-terawatt-hour-scale storage, subject to consents and financing.
The MESH project, already designated by the UK Government as nationally significant, will combine natural gas storage, compressed air energy storage (CAES) and hydrogen production at a site spanning offshore waters and onshore facilities in Barrow-in-Furness, and is expected to become Britain's largest integrated energy storage facility.
The gas storage element is designed to double Britain's existing gas storage capacity and provide up to six days of national energy supply, delivering flow rates of around 15 million cubic metres per day for rapid grid back-up.
The CAES component, planned at 300 MW and 55 GWh capacity, would be Britain's largest long-duration energy storage (LDES) facility, providing days rather than hours of electrical storage to capture wind power that would otherwise go to waste.
EnergyPathways also plans low-carbon dispatchable power generation and hydrogen production to support new industries in Barrow-in-Furness, including a proposed graphite production plant.
The company is targeting a final investment decision (FID) in 2028 and operations by late 2031, and has already begun discussions on funding and capacity offtake agreements. Partners include Siemens Energy, Costain, Wood and Zenith Energy.
The licence award follows last week's announcement that front-end engineering and design (FEED) work had launched for the CAES element.
Chief executive Ben Clube said the Middle East crisis had highlighted Britain's vulnerability to supply shocks and the cost of limited domestic energy storage.
"With the award of this licence EnergyPathways will now move at pace to get to FID as quickly as possible," he said, adding that the gas storage and CAES components were each commercially viable independently but offered additional cost synergies when developed together.