How batteries can solve Britain’s big renewable energy problem
There are concerns of a looming gap as the supply of renewables grows much faster than the very early stage energy storage market
19 July 2021 • 6:00am
Sprawled across a field in north Wiltshire, dozens of large rectangular boxes on the outskirts of the village of Minety are the latest physical sign of the UK’s energy revolution.
Together, they form the biggest storage battery in Europe, providing 100MW of lithium-ion power to prevent blackouts and volatile costs caused by the country’s increasingly renewables-based energy system.
“We fully support the UK’s target of achieving a net-zero emissions society by 2050. Projects like this will enable that transition,” David Wells, vice-president of Shell Energy Europe, which is helping run the project, said last week.
Published: 3 Mar 2021, 16:03
By:
Andy Colthorpe
Session moderator Carina Radford s law firm White & Case advised on the Neoen-Tesla Hornsdale Power Reserve project in South Australia. Image: Neoen-Tesla.
The battery storage market in the UK has become a viable investment opportunity in just the past few months, even without the backing of long-term contracts for grid services, according to an investment manager in the renewable energy sector.
Jonty Lovell, investment manager at Foresight Group, said that the falling cost of energy storage and the evolution of an industry capable of monetising assets in merchant opportunities have brought the industry into a new phase of economic viability. Lovell was speaking at today’s final day of the Energy Storage Summit 2021 hosted by our publisher Solar Media.