2025 marked a significant moment for our Building & Civils team as they began groundwork at Trafford Energy Park in Carrington, Manchester, a critical phase in bringing the UK’s first commercial-scale liquid-air long-duration energy storage facility to life.
It is a real privilege to be working with our client, Highview Power, on a development that will play a vital role in the UK’s transition to net zero by strengthening grid resilience and enabling greater use of clean energy.
Throughout the year, our team has been busy designing the site layout and delivering the enabling works and civils that will pave the way for the next phase of the development.
One of the standout milestones came in September, when, working alongside specialist sub-contractor Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering, the team began driven pile installation across the site.
Together, they installed around 25 piles per day, each approximately 12 metres long, creating the foundations that will go on to support key systems such as compressors, heat exchangers, and other critical mechanical components.
Currently, over 600, 350mm square concrete piles have been driven into the ground and excavations have commenced for a number of the underground concrete bases.
At the end of November, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, visited the site, hosted by our client, Highview Power. It was a privilege to be in attendance during the visit, and we appreciated the opportunity to speak with the mayor, who was pleased to see the progress being made on site.
The mayor told the Local Democracy Reporting Service:
For Greater Manchester, this is very exciting. I think it will make this Carrington site a centre of excellence for green energy around the world. I think what’s come over to me is the potential of this technology and the benefit to the city region and of the demonstrator [of this technology] being based here.
