Finance

UK awards millions for energy storage, including pumped hydro

UK awards millions for energy storage, including pumped hydro

Over £32 million in government funding has been awarded to projects developing cutting-edge innovative energy storage technologies that can help increase the resilience of the UK’s electricity grid while also maximizing value for money.

According to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, five projects based across the UK will benefit from a share of £32.9 million ($39.6 million) in the second phase of the Longer Duration Energy Storage (LODES) competition, to develop technologies that can store energy as heat, electricity or a low-carbon energy carrier like hydrogen.

The LODES competition provides government backing to accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative energy storage technologies, supporting the UK’s transition to relying on renewables while also encouraging private investment and new green jobs – with an estimated 100 jobs supported through these projects.

Developing new energy storage technologies means the UK can rely even more on renewable generation rather than fossil fuels, helping boost its long-term energy resilience, according to a release. This builds on the aims set out in the Energy Security Strategy earlier this year, to ensure a more flexible, efficient system by encouraging flexibility with large-scale, long-duration electricity storage to balance the overall system.

“Accelerating renewables is key to boosting our energy resilience. Energy storage helps us get the full benefit of these renewables, improving efficiency and helping drive down costs in the long term,” said Minister for Climate Graham Stuart. “This £32.9 million government backing will enable green innovators across the UK to develop this technology, helping create new jobs and encouraging private investment, while also safeguarding the UK’s energy security.”

This funding follows the first phase of the LODES competition, which saw £2.7 million ($3.2 million) awarded to 19 projects. This second phase provides further funding to the most promising projects from Phase 1, enabling them to build prototypes and demonstrators.

The pumped storage project that received funding was:

RheEnergise Ltd will receive £8.24 million ($9.9 million) to build a demonstrator near Plymouth of its High-Density Hydro® pumped energy storage system. The system uses an environmentally safe mineral-rich fluid more than 2.5 times denser than water to create electricity from gentle slopes, without requiring steep dam walls or high mountains. The project will use surplus electricity to pump the fluid uphill, then when electricity is needed by the grid the fluid will be released back down the hill through turbines to generate electricity.

“Over the next decade, long duration energy storage can make an important contribution to the UK energy market, and indeed globally,” said Stephen Crosher, chief executive of RheEnergise. He said the BEIS contract will “enable us to accelerate the commercial deployment of our High-Density Hydro storage system in the UK and overseas.” He added that RheEnergise Ltd. would seek planning consent for its Devon project before the end of the year.

Crosher said the company expects to have its first 5 MW grid-scale project in operation in 2026.

The other energy storage projects that received funding are:

StorTera Ltd will receive £5.02 million ($6.0 million) to build a prototype demonstrator of its sustainable, efficient and highly energy-dense single liquid flow battery technology.

Sunamp Ltd will receive £9.25 million ($11.1 million) to trial its advanced thermal storage system in 100 homes across the UK.

The University of Sheffield will receive £2.60 million ($3.1 million) to develop a prototype modular thermal energy storage system, enabling optimized, flexible storage of heat within homes.

EDF UK R&D — in partnership with the University of Bristol, Urenco and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) — will receive £7.73 million ($9.3 million) to develop a hydrogen storage demonstrator using depleted uranium at UKAEA’s Culham Science Centre.

In June, Hydro Review reported that The European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) said Europe will need about 200 GW of storage by 2030 and 600 GW by 2050. With the current installed storage capacity at about 60 MW and a historic deployment level of 1 GW/year, a massive ramp-up in uptake of at least 14 GW/year is required to meet the targets.