The UK government has awarded £6.7 million (8 million euros) for new renewable energy storage technologies under development in 24 projects across the country. This is the first round of a long-term energy storage financing programme, which was awarded a total value of £68 million.

These projects will develop new energy storage technologies that can use the stored energy as heat, electricity, or as a low-carbon energy carrier such as hydrogen in Phase 1 of the project.

From developing thermal batteries to converting energy to hydrogen, they have been chosen for their potential to improve technology performance and reduce costs to achieve net zero.

Phase 2 of the program will provide up to £68 million remaining for the most promising Phase 1 projects to proceed to fully develop and demonstrate their technology.

Project selection for the next phase will be made after the completion of Phase 1, during which projects will be evaluated on their potential to commercialize their technology, encourage private investment and create new jobs.

Minister of Energy and Climate Change, Greg HandHe said: “Upgrading energy storage technologies will be vital in our transition to cheap, clean and safe renewable energy. This will allow us to take the maximum benefit from our local renewable energy sources, reduce costs and end our dependence on fossil fuels that volatile and expensive. Through this competition, we ensure that the country’s most innovative scientists and thinkers have our support to realize this ambition.”

Among the energy storage projects that have received financing in this first phase is the EXTEND thermal battery project from sunamp in East Lothian, Scotland; FlexiTanker project for thermal energy storage and compressed air in Cheesecake energy in Nottingham, England, and the Ballylumford Power-to-X Project from Energy Storage B9based in Larne, Northern Ireland.

gravity has secured a £912,000 grant to develop a multi-heavy energy storage system, to be built on an abandoned industrial site in the UK.

Edinburgh-based energy storage specialists will work closely with control and simulation experts Industrial Systems and Controls (ISC) and winch spesialis specialist Huisman y Careys Civil Engineering to deliver a front end engineering design (FEED) for a 4MWh multi-weight system using a custom-built shaft.

Managing Director of Gravitrics, Charlie Blair, He said: “Finding inexpensive and long-lasting forms of renewable energy storage will be critical on the world’s journey to clean zero. Our multi-counterweight concept has been tested by our Leith demonstrator, where two 25-ton counterweights are configured to operate independently, providing sustained and consistent performance as they are lowered one after another. We were able to demonstrate a round-trip efficiency of over 80% and the ability to increase total import or export power in less than a second.”