Innovative energy storage technologies receive £6.7m government boost

A total of 24 projects have been chosen under the first round of funding through the Longer Duration Energy Storage competition

The UK Government has awarded £6.7 million in funding to support the development of new and innovative energy storage technologies.

A total of 24 projects have been chosen under the first round of funding through the Longer Duration Energy Storage competition – worth £68 million in total – due to their potential to improve technology performance and reduce the cost of meeting net zero goals.

The technologies can use stored energy as heat, electricity or as a low carbon energy carrier like hydrogen, with projects ranging from the development of thermal batteries to converting energy to hydrogen.

Some of the projects receiving funding include Sunamp’s EXTEND feasibility study to further develop the storage duration of its thermal batteries, Cheesecake Energy’s FlexiTanker project to develop its thermal and compressed air energy storage technology to integrate more renewables into the grid.

In addition, B9 Energy Storage’s Power-to-X project will see green hydrogen stored in underground salt caverns and used for transport as well as to displace natural gas in fuel blending trials, paving the way for future large-scale deployments connected to offshore wind farms.

Energy & Climate Change Minister Greg Hands said: “Driving forward energy storage technologies will be vital in our transition towards cheap, clean and secure renewable energy.

“It will allow us to extract the full benefit from our home-grown renewable energy sources, drive down costs and end our reliance on volatile and expensive fossil fuels. Through this competition we are making sure the country’s most innovative scientists and thinkers have our backing to make this ambition a reality.”

The second phase of the competition will provide further funding to the “most promising” projects, which will support them towards commercialisation.

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