The UK government has launched a new grant funding programme for energy storage technologies that can provide inter-day and seasonal energy shifting applications, primarily electrochemical batteries and hydrogen.
The Ultra-Long Duration Energy Storage Challenge was launched last week (20 August) and is offering £28 million (US$38.15 million) in grants to technologies that can store and discharge energy for over 100 hours.
The challenge aims to strengthen UK energy security, create jobs in new industries, and reduce energy bills in the long-term, the government said. UK innovators can now bid for funding, it added.
It follows the selection and announcement of the 16 winning projects totalling 7,645MW in the government’s long-duration energy storage (LDES) cap-and-floor scheme in June. However, those projects range from 8- to 22-hour durations, set to come online over 2030-33. Looking beyond that into the late 2030s and 2040s, much longer durations will be needed as intermittent solar and wind generation take up a larger share of the energy mix.
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The new funding was announced by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Michael Shanks and Chris McDonald, Ministers of State for DESNZ and BIST respectively.
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