# Liquid air storage: Correlation Prices it moves with, and why Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/correlation/ Liquid air storage cools air until it liquefies, stores it in insulated tanks and later warms it to drive a turbine. Costs depend on air separation equipment, tanks, power prices and whether waste heat or cold is available. No public price Liquid air storage has no public monthly price series: Early commercial plants only; no market price. #### What its price moves with Chemical [N2 Nitrogen gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/nitrogen_gas/)Shared process Industrial gas plants already liquefy air to make nitrogen, oxygen and argon. Liquid air storage uses the same kind of equipment and engineering firms, so its costs follow the industrial gases equipment market. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Chemical [O2 Oxygen](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/oxygen/)Shared process Air separation units that make oxygen for steel mills and hospitals use the same cold boxes and compressors. Gas companies could place storage beside these plants to share equipment and staff. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Energy [Cold LNG cold and cryogenic recovery](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_lng_cold/)Cold source LNG terminals waste large amounts of cold when they warm gas for pipelines. Using that cold to liquefy air would cut the power needed for storage, a pairing proposed for import terminals in Asia. No public price for LNG cold and cryogenic recovery, so the link is explained in words only. Commodity [Ni Nickel](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/nickel/)Tank material Cryogenic tanks use stainless or nickel alloy steels that stay tough at very low temperatures. Nickel prices therefore affect tank costs, though insulation, welding and fabrication matter as much as the metal itself. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. Energy [WHU Waste heat for drying, water and food](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_waste_heat_uses/)Efficiency boost Adding waste heat from industry when the air is released raises the power recovered. Sites with spare heat get better round-trip efficiency and so lower costs per unit of stored power. No public price for waste heat for drying, water and food, so the link is explained in words only. Energy [LFP Lithium iron phosphate batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_li_lfp/)Competitor Batteries compete for short-duration storage, while liquid air aims at longer durations with no degradation. Cheaper batteries push liquid air projects towards longer and larger applications where tanks are cheap to add. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. How to read these numbers **Correlation of monthly changes** (the number in the coloured pill) compares how much each price moved, month by month, since 2006 or the first month both series exist. It runs from −1 to +1: near +1 the two usually rise and fall in the same months, near 0 there is no link, and a negative number means they tend to move in opposite directions. Above 0.7 is strong, 0.4 to 0.7 moderate, 0.2 to 0.4 weak. **12-month changes** compare year-on-year moves, which shows whether two prices share the same cycles even when the month-to-month noise differs. **Price function** is a straight-line fit of the two prices on logarithmic scales: price ≈ k × (partner price)^β. β is how much this price moves, in per cent, for a 1% move in the partner over the whole period, and R² is the share of the variation the fit explains. Two prices that both drift up with inflation can fit well without any real link, so read it together with the monthly correlation. **Lead or lag** checks whether the monthly correlation is clearly higher when one price is shifted by 1 to 6 months. Correlation is not cause. The reasons on each card explain the economic link; the numbers show how strongly it has shown up in prices. Proxy series are US producer price indexes or related prices and can blur the real link. Data: World Bank Commodity Price Data (Pink Sheet), October 2026; US Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price indexes, IMF primary commodity prices and US EIA prices via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, retrieved November 2026. Calculations by this site. ## Other sections - [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/index.md) - [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/overview/index.md) - [Science and technology](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/sg-sci/index.md) - [Engineering and performance](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/sg-eng/index.md) - [Economics](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/sg-econ/index.md) - [Impact and additionality](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/sg-impact/index.md) - [What to track](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/tracking/index.md) - [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_liquid_air/links/index.md)