£6.7 million in authorities funding for initiatives throughout the UK to assist the event of recent power storage applied sciences Vitality storage will probably be essential because the UK’s transition to low cost, clear, domestically produced renewable power to maximise renewable power potential will assist scale back prices to cut back transition to a greener power system
Virtually £7 million has been awarded within the first spherical of the government-backed competitors for turbocharger initiatives within the UK that develop progressive power storage applied sciences.
The intermittent nature of renewable energies similar to photo voltaic and wind energy signifies that power will be produced when it isn’t wanted, for instance throughout extended intervals of excessive winds. Nevertheless, as new applied sciences develop, this power will be saved for longer, serving to to handle fluctuations in energy technology and enhance resilience whereas maximizing worth for cash.
Twenty-four initiatives throughout the UK have secured the primary spherical of funding within the Longer Period Vitality Storage competitors, value a complete of £68 million. These initiatives will profit from a stake of over £6.7m to develop new power storage applied sciences that may use saved power as warmth, electrical energy or as low-carbon fuels similar to hydrogen. From growing thermal batteries to changing power into hydrogen, they’ve been chosen for his or her potential to enhance know-how efficiency and scale back the price of reaching internet zero. Profitable initiatives may gain advantage from a bigger tranche of funding from a second section of the competitors, which can assist these initiatives commercialize, encourage non-public funding and create new jobs.
Vitality and Local weather Safety Secretary Greg Fingers stated:
Advancing power storage applied sciences will probably be crucial in our transition to low cost, clear, and protected renewable power.
It’ll permit us to take full benefit of our home renewable power sources, scale back prices and finish our dependence on unstable and costly fossil fuels. By means of this competitors, we be sure that the nation’s most progressive scientists and thinkers obtain our assist to attain this purpose.
As a part of the UK Authorities’s net-zero dedication, we’re accelerating the transition to scrub, renewable power and transitioning to a inexperienced electrical energy grid by growing using clear power sources similar to wind and photo voltaic.
Not solely will this assist scale back the nation’s reliance on costly fossil fuels, however it should additionally present customers with cheaper power and imply extra of the UK’s power will probably be produced domestically. The transition to inexperienced power due to this fact entails guaranteeing that the UK’s electrical energy infrastructure can deal with a higher share of renewable power whereas additionally with the ability to safely meet electrical energy wants.
As we speak’s funding is being awarded as a part of Part 1 of the Longer Period Vitality Storage Demonstration Competitors (LODES), a part of the Authorities’s £1 billion net-zero innovation portfolio. Part 1 will probably be adopted by Part 2, during which the rest of the £68m funding will probably be awarded to a number of of essentially the most promising initiatives from Part 1 to proceed with building and full demonstration of their know-how. Tasks will probably be chosen for the following section upon completion of section 1, with initiatives being evaluated primarily based on their potential to commercialize their applied sciences.
Vitality storage initiatives funded right now embody:
Sunamp’s EXTEND challenge, East Lothian, Scotland, is awarded £149,893 for a feasibility examine to additional develop the storage lifetime of its thermal batteries. They’ll search to interface their thermal batteries with family power techniques to deal with intervals of low renewable technology on the grid. Cheesecake Vitality, Nottingham, England’s FlexiTanker challenge is awarded £139,411 to develop their thermal and compressed air storage know-how to deliver extra renewable power into the grid, serving to to speed up the decarbonisation of the UK electrical energy system. B9 Vitality Storage, Larne, Northern Eire’s Ballylumford Energy-to-X Mission is awarded £986,082 to mobilize an progressive 20MW Energy-to-X challenge in Ballylumford. Inexperienced hydrogen produced by electrolysers is saved in underground salt caverns and used for transport and displacement of pure gasoline in gasoline mixing experiments. This challenge paves the best way for future large-scale deployments related to offshore wind farms
Sunamp Chief Govt Officer Andrew Bissell stated:
For the previous decade we now have centered on scorching water decarbonization and have to this point launched a report 20,000 warmth batteries worldwide utilizing our section change materials and we at the moment are launching our Central Financial institution merchandise for warmth. Our thermal storage know-how will be mixed with warmth pumps to ship greater than twice the warmth per unit of electrical energy when wanted than direct electrical heating. This funding will speed up how we are able to additional lengthen thermal storage life through the use of on-grid wind energy and residential photo voltaic PV to offer warmth and water at longer intervals of low renewable technology when inexperienced electrical energy is unavailable on the grid , which ultimately reduces the entire value of possession is decrease than gasoline.
Larry Zulch, Chief Govt Officer of Invinity stated:
The LODES initiatives are additional proof of the UK’s dedication to constructing a thriving low-carbon financial system. Invinity appreciates BEIS’ imaginative and prescient for this future, significantly the essential position that protected, dependable and strong long-term power storage should play in a UK Internet Zero energy grid. In realizing this imaginative and prescient, we’re excited to as soon as once more work with BEIS, Pivot Energy and EDF to plan to deploy a vanadium stream battery eight occasions the scale of the one at the moment working on the Vitality Superhub Oxford.
The funding introduced right now is a crucial step in supporting the event and commercialization of progressive power storage applied sciences that can in flip assist the UK’s transition to renewable power whereas encouraging non-public funding and new inexperienced jobs.
Notes for editors
The £68m longer length power storage demonstration competitors is funded by the Division for Enterprise, Vitality and Industrial Technique’s £1bn Internet Zero Innovation Portfolio, which goals to speed up the commercialization of progressive clear power applied sciences and processes within the 2020s and 2030s.
This competitors will probably be performed in 2 phases and over 2 streams. The two competitors streams are designed to assist applied sciences at totally different levels of growth, with Stream 1 supporting precise demonstrations of the applied sciences and Stream 2 supporting prototype demonstrations. Funding for Stream 1 is within the type of capital grants and the initiatives had been wanted to safe extra non-public funding.
Learn a full listing of funded initiatives at:
Part 2 will construct on Part 1 and choose a number of of the Part 1 initiatives for additional funding to completely construct and display their know-how.
