UK injects £20m into search for electricity storage systems

The UK Government is about ready to hit the “go” button on the work of leading innovators in the electricity and energy storage systems sector. It has directed £20 million for two energy storage competitions, which, in return, will reportedly fetch a yield of £10 billion every year (if an Imperial College London report is correct).

Applicants are invited to register through the internet this week. The goal is to have the projects starting at the beginning of next year.

The “Energy Storage Technology Demonstration Competition,” which is supposed to be the first competition, will enable the organisations to acquire funds from the government, which will help them build up and exhibit their innovations in energy preservation and their technological prowess. The goal is to improve utility-scale storage for the UK’s electricity grid.

As for the second competition, the DECC’s Energy Storage Component Research and Feasibility Study Competition, a funding grant will be offered in order to ”support component level research in relation to storage technologies.”

Andrew Jones who is the S&C Electric Company’s managing director for Middle East, Africa, and Europe, said to BusinessGreen that the organisation would let in up to 3 projects.

He further added that S&C is in talks with several clients that have the potential to develop storage demonstrations schemes for solar or wind farms, and another to support massive commercial constructions in order to make them independent of the grid (simply running on renewables and energy storage). Of course, competitively priced electricity storage is key to the UK’s (and other countries’) long-term renewable energy goals.

Jones said: “We are delighted with DECC’s announcement to support the progression of electricity storage. This will certainly help contribute towards the government’s overall understanding of its benefits and hopefully enable the market reforms required to facilitate its adoption. This will provide the much-needed impetus to improve the efficiency of our electricity grid and help boost the integration of renewable energy sources.”
This story was originally published on Cleantechnica, Re-produced with permission.