We have been notified by the Patent Office that our application for CAES with Hydrogen is granted and will be published on 9th December. This is the first of our two patents to have reached this stage, and we look forward to the other one achieving it next year.
European Enterprise Awards winner
We have won yet another award, for Best Compressed Air Energy Storage Projects Developer 2020, in the European Enterprise Awards run by EU Business News. This is another in the long series of awards our storage technologies and business have won, a measure of the opportunity they provide to investors into our business and/or our first plants.
National Infrastructure Strategy
The UK has just published its National Infrastructure Strategy, which Storelectric applauds. We fit every one of its principles, namely:
- Boost growth and productivity across the whole of the UK – we would build a global business and industry based in Britain and benefiting many associated industries and companies;
- Put the UK on the path to meeting its net zero emissions target by 2050 – we see large-scale long-duration storage (and especially our versions of it) as essential to building an affordable, reliable and resilient Net Zero grid;
- Support private investment – many companies have expressed interest in financing our follow-on plants, without subsidy;
- Accelerate and improve delivery – we have interest in funding construction of our first plants; support for this would accelerate it;
- Levelling up – the main business will be based in the North West, with the biggest number of plants in the North East, until we develop further geologies which would enable us to expand throughout the Union.
Renewables must have storage in Spain
According to a recent royal decree (the original in Spanish, and translated into English), the next invitations to develop renewables in Spain will include storage. This may well be just the first of many countries to take that approach, in order to reduce grid reinforcement and the costs of providing balancing and stability services – which our CAES does very well. It can, for example:
- Reduce the size of grid connections for solar plants by between 2/3 and 5/6 –
- For wind, it’s 1/2 to 2/3,
- Reducing reinforcement correspondingly, with related capital cost savings,
- Alternatively, new renewable generation can be attached to existing farms’ grid connections, eliminating the need for a new grid connection or reinforcement;
- This in turn enables projects to proceed where grids are saturated;
- It also correspondingly reduces or eliminates annual grid access charges;
- And can eliminate grid Use of System charges and levies per MWh produced;
- And benefits the storage similarly.
Storelectric’s CAES can greatly benefit renewable generation projects. Batteries can’t do that, as explained here.
For more details, please contact Mark Howitt:
mhowitt@storelectric.com, 07910 020 686.
Fads and Fallacies of the Energy Transition
In this article Mark takes a highly personal view of the fads and fallacies of the energy transition, concluding with a huge omission – one could call it the elephant in the room. But be warned: some of the opinions expressed are rather trenchant.
Read The Blog
