The first awards of funding designed to “turbocharge” UK projects developing long-duration energy storage technologies have been made by the country’s government, with £6.7 million (US$9.11 million) pledged.
The total £68 million competitive funding opportunity was launched by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in June 2021 through the national Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP).
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Announced this morning — as BEIS innovation programme manager Georgina Morris prepares to join speakers at the Energy Storage Summit 2022 in London today and tomorrow, hosted by our publisher, Solar Media — a total of 24 projects have now received funding through the Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration Programme.
The awards are split into two streams: Stream 1 is for demonstration projects of technologies considered close to commercialisation and aiming to accelerate that process so that they can be deployed on the UK energy system. Stream 2 seeks to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative projects through building “first-of-a-kind” prototypes of full systems.
The five awarded Stream 1 projects are a membrane free green hydrogen electrolyser, gravity-based energy storage, vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) and a bundled solution of pressurised seawater and compressed air.
Thermal storage technologies were eligible, but none have received funding.
Stream 1 projects will receive funding ranging from £471,760 to £1 million per project.
There are however six thermal energy storage technologies among the 19 Stream 2 awardees. Stream 2 winners must deliver feasibility study reports for their proposed technologies and contribute to knowledge sharing and “sector capacity-building,” BEIS said.
Stream 2 funding ranging from £79,560 to £150,000 went to the six thermal storage projects, four power-to-x category projects and nine electrical energy storage projects.
Awardees
Stream 1
| Technology type | Project name | Lead party | Location | Technology/scope | Funding (£) |
| Power-to-x energy storage | Ballylumford Power-to-X | B9 Energy Storage | Ballylumford, Northern Ireland | 20MW green hydrogen electrolyser storing curtailed wind in salt caverns | 986,082 |
| Electrical energy storage | GraviSTORE | Gravitricity | Northern England | Multiweight energy storage charged and discharged by lifting and lowering weights in an underground vertical shaft | 912,410.84 |
| Electrical energy storage | Long Duration Offshore Storage Bundle | Subsea 7 Limited | Aberdeen, Scotland | Combining pressurised seawater and compressed air using hydro-pneumatic tech | 471,760 |
| Electrical energy storage | Vanadium Flow Battery Longer Duration Energy Asset Demonstrator | Invinity Energy Systems | Bathgate, Scotland | Delivering power on demand from solar PV using 40MWh vanadium flow battery storage system | 708,371 |
| Electrical energy storage | Cheshire Energy Storage Centre | io consulting | Cheshire, UK | Using Hydrostor’s A-CAES tech to store energy as compressed air in defunct EDF gas cavities | 1,000,000 |
Stream 2
| Technology type | Project name | Lead party | Location | Technology/scope | Funding (£) |
| Thermal energy storage | EXTEND | Sunamp | East Lothian, Scotland | Feasibility study to extend duration of phase change material (PCM) based thermal storage for heating and hot water | 149,893 |
| Thermal energy storage | Exergy3 | University of Edinburgh | Edinburgh, Scotland | Prepare testing of 36MWh ultra-high temperature energy storage system for industrial process decarbonisation | 149,779 |
| Thermal energy storage | ADSorB | Active Building Centre Research Programme (Swansea University) | Swansea, Wales | Developing long-duration thermal storage and control systems for domestic heating and grid support | 143,440 |
| Thermal energy storage | PTES Demonstrator | SynchroStor | Edinburgh, Scotland | Feasibility study for repeatable grid-scale pumped thermal storage system | 79,560 |
| Thermal energy storage | Utilising Composite Phase Change Materials | Vital Energi | Blackburn, England | Support development of PCM-based thermal storage | 131,214 |
| Thermal energy storage | INHERENT | Energy Systems Catapult Services Limited | Birmingham, England | Demonstrate ability of domestic thermal storage to provide low-cost, long-duration storage | 149,831 |
| Power-to-X energy storage | HyDUS | EDF R&D UK | Oxfordshire, England | Tech transfer and modification of metal hydride storage used in fusion sector for hydrogen (protium) storage | 149,602 |
| Power-to-X energy storage | HEOS | Haskins & Davey | Chester, England | Feasibility study for power-to-x tech based on storing hydrogen in metal hydride | 141,000 |
| Power-to-X energy storage | RIPCURL | ITM Power | Sheffield, England | R&D into reducing reliance on Platinum Group Metal (PGM) in hydrogen electrolyser cells | 149,388 |
| Power-to-X energy storage | Hydrilite Refueller Prototype | Corre Energy | Wales | Long-duration hydrogen storage using patented storage medium Carbon280 Hydrilite | 149,922 |
| Electrical energy storage | FlexiTanker | Cheesecake Energy | Nottingham, England | Develop thermal and compressed air technology | 139,411 |
| Electrical energy storage | Sustainable Single Liquid Flow Battery | StorTera | Edinburgh, Scotland | Specify and cost MW-scale lithium sulfur flow battery demonstrator project | 148,940 |
| Electrical energy storage | High-Density Hydro Energy Storage | RheEnergise | London, England | Developing cost-optimised energy storage solution based on pumped hydro principles | 149,537 |
| Electrical energy storage | e-Zinc Energy Storage Systems | e-Zinc | UK (unspecified) | Accelerate commercialisation of zinc-based battery storage | 144,990 |
| Electrical energy storage | BlueStor | MSE International | Portsmouth, England | Feasibility study for marine and port-based energy storage using organic flow battery tech | 149,779 |
| Electrical energy storage | Marine Pumped Hydro | RCAM Technologies | Edinburgh, Scotland | Developing marine pumped hydro tech using 3D printed concrete | 150,000 |
| Electrical energy storage | Feasibility of Compressed Air Energy Storage in the Offshore UK Continental Shelf | Crondall Energy | UK (unspecified) | Develop application of compressed air storage on UK continental shelf | 149,086 |
| Electrical energy storage | Co-location of Flow Battery Storage with Solar PV | Locogen | Edinburgh, Scotland | Assess feasibility of colocating existing PV and flow batteries | 121,400 |
| Electrical energy storage | Renewable Copper | Energy Systems Catapult Services | Birmingham, England | Develop copper/zinc battery storage with 4-12 hour duration ahead of planned demonstrator in Scotland | 149,954 |
After launching the competition last year, BEIS opened up a three-month Call for Evidence on long-duration energy storage in July, assessing how best to enable long-duration technologies at scale.
A recent report from energy industry consultancy Aurora Energy Research found that up to 24GW of energy storage with a duration of four hours or greater could be needed to enable a net zero energy system in the UK by 2035.
This would enable the integration of variable renewable energy generation and also lower household energy bills by £1.13 billion a year in 2035. It could also reduce the country’s reliance on gas by 50TWh each year and lead to a 10MtCO2 reduction in emissions.
Aurora said however that high upfront costs, long lead times as well as a lack of revenue certainty and market signals are resulting in long-duration energy storage being underinvested into. Policy support and market reforms were recommended in the group’s report.
Another report by KPMG published a few weeks ago said that a cap and floor mechanism would be the best way to reduce investor risk while encouraging operators of long-duration facilities to respond to electricity system requirements.
In the US, the Department of Energy is hosting the Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a policy-driven effort to reduce costs and accelerate the adoption of energy storage, including a similar competitive funding opportunity for long-duration technologies and projects. Its aims include reducing the cost of long-duration energy storage 90% by 2030.
Meanwhile a cluster of European trade associations made a recent plea for the European Union (EU) to take a similarly proactive stance to support long-duration energy storage, particularly in the European Green Deal package.
