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 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.
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.
The Challenge will have two main areas of focus, they said. The first is to focus on electrochemical battery technologies that can be deployed with durations of 100 hours or more.
The second focus will be to support the development and testing of systems which store hydrogen underground and release it when needed.
Companies with 100-hour battery technologies include US-headquartered Form Energy, which has announced a project in Ireland.
Hydrogen has been discussed as a potential technology for ultra-long duration energy storage applications but generally has been deemed inappropriate because of very low round-trip efficiency, among other things. Big names in the European energy sector including Vattenfall and Uniper have done pilot hydrogen projects.
£3 million of the Challenge’s funding is earmarked for studies into electrochemical ultra-long duration energy storage technologies. That competition opened on 3 August and closes on 30 September, you can apply here.
The Ultra-Long Duration Energy Storage Challenge is part of the £102 million Clean Energy challenges. The other chunk of the funding is the £74 million Consumer-led Flexibility Challenge, launched in June.
