Moixa has announced plans to build a virtual power plant made up of solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) in Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea.

In the coming autumn the firm will begin installing clean energy infrastructure in 250 council homes, as well as in 100 schools and council buildings in the region – together these technologies will offer a combined 4MW of generation and 4.2MWh of storage capacity.

The project will be led by a consortium of firms – GridShare will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to tailor the performance of equipment to customers’ needs and help cut their energy bills by up to 40%.

Moixa’s virtual power plant will be the first operational element of a £40 million smart local energy system which will also include a marine source heat pump, a combined heat and power system, a grid-scale battery, air source heat pumps and a refuelling station for hydrogen and electric-powered vehicles.

Once deployed, these technologies will provide 7.65MW of generation and more than 17MW of storage, with Flexitricity to aggregate and trade available flexibility to support the UK grid.

The project is supported by West Sussex County Council and the Carbon and Energy Fund – they believe it could cut energy costs by 10%, save the UK £32 billion if rolled out nationally and save nearly 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

Chris Wright, Moixa Chief Technology Officer, said: “This project will show how solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles at home and in the workplace can play a vital role in creating a smart, low carbon, energy system, cutting energy bills, saving the country billions and helping to meet our climate targets.”