The Department of Energy and Climate Change is introducing a subsidy for energy storage in the Autumn, ELN can reveal.

According to a DECC official, the Government wants to create a market mechanism to help firms become more competitive.

Energy storage is seen by some as the energy sector’s ‘holy grail’ for the role it can play in storing energy from renewables, for example by storing electricity produced at periods of high wind or during the day time from photovoltaics and then used again when the demand’s at its greatest.

Ian Ellerington, Head of Innovation Delivery at DECC (pictured) told ELN: “We see that in the long term electricity storage is going to be important so through the innovation programme at DECC we’re going to be supporting electricity storage through a scheme of grants that I’m hoping to announce formally in September this year.”

Speaking with ELN after an ecoConnect forum on the technology, he added: “We’re going to be giving assistance to companies to demonstrate technologies so they can get funding and bring their costs down to make them more competitive and I would hope that suitable market mechanisms can be found.”

If it was possible to fit energy storage support into the Energy Bill it would be a real boost to the industry, Mr Ellerington suggested: “The energy system has to make sure it’s cost competitive and if storage can be part of that then it would be good to have the commercial mechanism in place to take advantage of the benefits that can be realised through that.”