The UK government has invested £30 million in energy storage facilities but provided no dedicated funding for the research to actually use them. This project fills that gap by bringing together five university consortia to tackle the fundamental science and engineering challenges that span different storage technologies—from the materials inside batteries and thermal stores to how those devices connect to the grid. Without this work, the expensive test-bed equipment risks being underused, and the UK could lose its chance to lead a global market for energy storage. If the research succeeds, it will accelerate the development of cheaper, more effective storage systems that help balance renewable electricity supply and demand. That matters for keeping the lights on when the wind isn’t blowing, for powering remote communities, and for modernising ageing grid infrastructure. The project also aims to build a national research community and share operational data from pilot plants, so lessons learned in one lab don’t stay there. This is applied, interdisciplinary research with a clear practical goal—not fundamental science, but it draws on fundamental understanding of materials and processes to solve a real-world bottleneck.
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The rapid deployment of variable renewable electricity in the UK will make it more challenging to balance the supply and demand of energy. Over the last five years, the potential for energy storage to meet this challenge has been recognised by industry and policy makers. Other global drivers of energy system change show the wider opportunity: providing remote communities with access to power, increasing urbanisation, and ageing infrastructure. The characteristics of energy storage can range from meeting the needs of individuals and households, to local/city distribution networks, to those of the high-voltage transmission grid. But advances, in energy storage devices themselves and their integration into systems, are needed to meet the required performance and cost levels. With a strong research and industry base, the UK can be at the forefront of innovation in energy storage, capturing value in the global market. To these ends, the Government invested £30m in energy storage facilities under the 'Eight Great Technologies' call, providing state-of-the-art equipment in five university consortia for the development and testing of technologies that span application areas. However, whilst funding was made available for capital expenditure, no dedicated funding for undertaking research was attached. We propose a truly interdisciplinary programme building on this investment to tackle some key challenges facing the energy storage community. We have designed a programme which will draw on the collective expertise and facilities that exist in the consortia to tackle research questions that span the storage technologies being developed, and to maximise the impact of the test-bed demonstrators. Our approach is to address a set of research questions that apply across the technologies supported by the capital investment. We will consider the key challenges, across length scales, from materials to devices, to systems, specifically addressing: - How the materials used in energy storage technologies, including batteries and thermal energy - How processes are modelled in the technologies, and validating the models with experiments - How energy storage devices can be integrated into the energy system most effectively - How data from operational runs of pilot plants can improve our understanding of the role of energy storage This project can be the catalyst which leads to improved understanding of physical processes, accelerated technology development, and shared learning from the operation of energy storage technologies. The research will also drive further collaboration between institutions, build the national research and innovation community, increase recognition of the UK's role, and maximise the impact from these facilities in the international energy landscape. The consortia demonstrated excellence in research capability as part of their original capital grant bids. This project draws on this expertise directly with the involvement of senior investigators who have internationally leading reputations. We will also benefit from the additional support of technology users from across the energy sector, as well as the links through the individual consortia Advisory Boards.
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