Storage At Scale Competition
The title of this post is the same as that of this press release from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
This is the details of the competition.
Innovative large-scale energy storage will play an important role in decarbonising industry, power, heat and transport.
This competition is looking for innovative, replicable solutions which could provide a market competitive alternative to conventional commercial large scale energy storage technologies, for example pumped-hydro or batteries (such as lithium ion, lead acid or sodium-sulphur).
A range of electrical energy storage technologies are within scope, with a target minimum output power of 30 MW or minimum capacity of 50 MWh. Power-to-X technologies (e.g. power-to-gas) with a target minimum input power of 5 MW are also in scope.
Up to £20 million will be available from 2019 to 2021. The competition will support up to 3 demonstration projects with build completion by March 2021 and operational testing to be completed December 2021.
Projects should be at a technology readiness level of 6 or above, which could result in lower capital or operating costs to the traditional storage technologies, or improved capacity, sustainability and response rates at a comparable cost.
A few thoughts.
The Minimum Output Power
A minimum output of 30 MW is specified.
To put this in context, the pumped-storage Dinorwig Power Station, has a maximum power output of 1,800 MW.
The Minimum Capacity
A minimum capacity of 50 MWh is specified.
Dinorwig has a capacity of 9.1 GWh
Power-to-X Technologies
As Power-to-gas is mentioned, I would feel that this refers to a process like electrolysis, where electricity is perhaps converted into hydrogen, which can be stored and then converted back to electricity using fuel cells or combustion and a steam turbine.
Conclusion
The competition looks to me to be a good idea.
Let’s hope it produces something worthwhile.
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