Executive Summary
- Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is allocating £3 million to the first phase of a funding competition which will support the development, scale-up and UK manufacture of electrochemical ULDES technologies
- The technologies must be capable of delivering cost-effective electrical power to the UK grid with a discharge availability of at least 100 hours
- If potential is realised, UKRI notes that electrochemical ULDES technologies could have a UK market opportunity of up to 3 TWh a year
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has published details of a funding competition for ultra-long duration energy storage (ULDES) project development studies – to the tune of up to £3 million.
The application form, which can be found on the Gov.uk website, notes the competition aim is to ‘support the development, scale-up and UK manufacture of electrochemical ULDES technologies.’ The technologies must be capable of delivering cost-effective electrical power to the UK’s electricity grid with a discharge availability of at least 100 continuous hours, and must also achieve a working life of at least 25 years, UKRI notes.
The competition represents the first phase of a planned two, with phase two scheduled to launch in the middle of 2027 and a further funding of at least £10 million allocated. The second phase will support the development and delivery of large scale ULDES demonstrators.
Eligible businesses are ‘strongly encouraged to use this phase one competition to address the practical delivery issues that determine whether projects can move from concept to construction’, URKI notes. Projects must have a total eligible grant funding of between £350,000 and £700,000.
UKRI is working in partnership with the Faraday Institution, a key delivery partner of the UK’s Battery Innovation Programme, to help shape the ULDES Challenge. Modelling from the institution suggests that ULDES in the UK would need to cost about $15/kWh installed to compete with gas fired reserve, as well as provide a financial return of more than 6% a year.
“If met, electrochemical ULDES technologies could have a UK market opportunity of up to 3 TWh a year,” UKRI adds. “This could be worth tens of billions of pounds and save the electricity system more than £1 billion a year in balancing costs.”
A report from Eurelectric and AFRY in July noted that innovative long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies are set to become an ‘increasingly viable flexibility option’ in several European markets. The UK, along with Germany, as a wind-rich country, could see storage technologies with durations exceeding 24 hours reaching commercial viability by around 2040, the analysis added.
The competition closes on 30 September, with an online briefing event taking place on 7 August.
