Five energy projects across the UK are to receive more than £32m in government funding from the Longer Duration Energy Storage competition.
The biggest amount of funding (£9.25m) was awarded to East Lothian-based Sunamp Ltd for testing its thermal storage system in 100 houses.
Graham Stuart, climate minister, said: “Accelerating renewables is key to boosting our energy resilience. Energy storage helps us get the full benefit of these renewables, improving efficiency and helping drive down costs in the long term.”
RheEnergise has received £8.24m for its mineral water hydropower technology. A partnership between EDF UK, University of Bristol, Urenco and the UK Atomic Energy Authority will use £7.73m to build a demonstration of their hydrogen storage at UKAEA’s Culham Science Centre.
Edinburgh-based StorTera will receive £5.02m for a prototype of its energy-dense single liquid flow battery technology and the University of Sheffield will get £2.06m for a prototype modular thermal energy storage system.
“The UK’s net zero future needs hydrogen and nuclear in the mix, and HyDUS, which innovatively combines the two, makes perfect sense,” said Patrick Dupeyrat, director, EDF R&D UK.