Scottish clean tech company Innovatium Limited has secured investment from global industrial innovator Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems. (HIES) and Scottish National Investment Bank (the Bank) to accelerate the deployment of its award-winning PRISMA Advanced Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) system, for industrial and grid-scale applications.
PRISMA is a technology that provides long-duration, flexible energy storage for energy intensive businesses. It aims to resolve intermittency issues in renewable energy generation and offers a cost-effective, safer and more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional storage options. The system, which is multi award-winning, works by cooling and liquefying compressed air using off-peak electricity, then converting it back into compressed air to generate power when needed. PRISMA delivers flexible, low-emissions storage that supports energy security, decarbonisation, and cost reduction.
The new investment will enable Innovatium to grow its team, scale production, and fast-track commercial rollout. The company believes that with support from its new investor partners, it can super-charge its impact within energy-intensive sectors such as data centres, where energy demand and sustainability pressures are a cause of global concern.
New markets and opportunities
The partnership with HIES marks a major step forward in Innovatium’s growth. As a global leader in industrial innovation, HIES will supply core compressor components for PRISMA and expand sales through its Hitachi Global Air Power and HIES Europe divisions. This opens new commercial opportunities for Innovatium in key international markets.
“This investment gives us the platform to scale-up significantly,” said Brian Jack, CEO of Innovatium. “Through our partnership with a global business such as HIES, we can now offer a much broader portfolio of solutions, creating new value for our customers in the UK and globally. This is a new and very exciting growth phase for us. We have immediate plans to grow our team, advance PRISMA technology, and build additional depth within the business to meet rising demand from customers. We have never been better placed to deliver solutions to support the energy transition.”
‘Vote of confidence’ in Scottish clean tech
Jack says that backing from Scotland’s development bank SNIB reflects a strong vote of confidence in Innovatium, as well as the wider Scottish clean tech sector.
“Support from our colleagues at Scottish National Investment Bank aligns with the bank’s wider mission to support technologies that drive economic productivity and accelerate the energy transition. We are delighted to be part of the solution,” he says.
Ailsa Young, Investment Director, 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 global 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.”
Addressing a national priority
Energy storage is now a cornerstone of UK energy strategy. In its Clean Power Action Plan 2030, the UK Government highlights the need for 40–50GW of dispatchable, long-duration storage capacity to support a decarbonised electricity system by 2035. Liquid air energy storage is named among the technologies requiring further innovation and support.
PRISMA directly responds to this national priority, by helping unlock flexibility in a system increasingly reliant on intermittent renewables like wind and solar.
Tackling the data centre energy challenge
PRISMA has been developed in response to the needs of many energy-intensive sectors, who are balancing the urgent need to decarbonise with a requirement for reliable, 24/7 power.
One notable example is data centres. Electricity demand from data centres could more than double by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. PRISMA is ideally placed to resolve some of the most pressing energy challenges faced by this sector. It offers a clean, long-duration sustainable alternative to fossil-based backup systems and short-life lithium-ion batteries.
“Data centres are facing a perfect storm of rising energy demand, carbon pressure, and the need for greater resilience,” said Simon Branch, Founder and Executive Director at Innovatium. “By building strong partnerships with these two powerful organisations we can extend our technology portfolio to deliver scalable, zero-emissions solutions to one of the most urgent energy challenges of the digital economy. We are all very excited about the next stage in our journey, and how we can play a bigger, more impactful role in the move to a low-carbon economy.”
With this investment, Innovatium is set to play a vital role in the UK’s clean energy future, delivering the innovation, flexibility, and reliability the energy system urgently needs.
