Update on Locations

Two months ago we informed you that we are in discussions with at least 8 location owners in the UK alone. We have now put in three initial non-binding offers for sites with underground storage that are appropriate for hydrogen and CAES, and have visited a fourth. Other discussions are ongoing.

We are also going to a conference of the Solution Mining Research Institute where we will meet cavern owners and developers, and discuss cavern conversion issues.

UK Goverment Interventions on Rising Energy Prices

In relation to the government’s interventions, there is indeed urgent need to help people with rising energy prices. But current actions suspending green levies are not the answer: doing so disincentivises the energy transition. Energy caps don’t incentivise reduction in demand. Taxes help those who can afford to pay taxes, not those who can’t, and are hard to reverse when we need to pay down the fast-growing national debt. Better to provide direct support for needy people and businesses, unrelated to demand – which incentivises reduction in consumption. The Energy Supply Task Force needs to consider strategic developments, not just responding to urgent need, or we’ll never get out of this situation.

Energy should be remunerated for its value, not just its size: being baseload or dispatchable is worth more than intermittent as it doesn’t additionally require balancing. Duration is valuable in itself: the longer the duration, the greater its value, especially for storage. Being synchronous is more valuable than asynchronous as it also provides grid stability, reliability, resilience, power quality, restoration etc. All energy should be remunerated for its full value, not just its MW capacity.

Energy security requires UK-based renewables and large-scale long-duration storage, preferably but not necessarily including nuclear, to provide all our country’s current and future demand and supply margin.

Tallat is a Go-To Analyst on TRT Television

Tallat was interviewed on TRT about the current energy crisis, pointing to the strategic lessons and actions needed and indicating that despite the necessary short-term fixes like reopening fossil fuelled power stations, we must redouble our development of renewables and long-duration storage.

He was interviewed again for rapid reaction to the Prime Minister’s initial energy announcement to Parliament, saying that it addresses the immediate challenge and gives us time to address the important strategic issue: “we need to get to energy independence as soon as we can.”

Mark’s Conferences and Podcast

Mark was also interviewed in an audio podcast by The Leaders Council, discussing the energy transition, the current energy crisis and how Storelectric addresses these needs. They have also created a profile page.

On 22nd September Mark presented to the World Energy Storage Day, being run this time by the Indian Energy Storage Alliance. A recording was not available when this went to press.

Mark will be a keynote speaker at Solar and Storage Live, 10:20 am on 20th October in Birmingham NEC, presenting on Latest and Greatest technologies – Storelectric.

He will then be rushing off to be a keynote speaker at 5:30pm at the virtual 1Sustainability conference on the Technical Challenges of the Energy Transition, on which he blogged recently.

BEIS Consultation on Hydrogen Transport and Storage

BEIS is consulting on hydrogen transportation and storage at infrastructure scale. It is at this scale that Storelectric’s CAES and hydrogen technologies come together to provide optimised, integrated soutions. Mark’s views are in this month’s blog, below.

Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA)

As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, the government is undertaking a Review of Electriicty Market Arrangements (REMA) as a laudable attenpt to fit the market too a Net Zero grid. While this much is good, it only addresses energy which is a quarter of the problem: non-energy services are another quarter, and network is half. And it needs its vision extending from a dozen years to 30-50. Mark’s response can be seen here.

A clearer-headed review of the electricity system since EMR (Electricity Market Reform) shows that, as compared with other European systems, the UK has dropped:

• From the continent’s second cheapest electricity system to one of its most expensive;
• From the most reliable to one averaging black-outs or near misses more frequently than every couple of months;
• From one of the most self-sufficient to one depending on imports through interconnectors for actual demand as well as supply margins, and current forecasts are for 10-hour Loss of Load Expectation next winter;
• From one with a self-sustaining asset base to one whose asset base ages almost a year every year and capacity is reducing as plants get so old as no longer to be maintainable;
• From having dispatchable and baseload generation sufficient for generous capacity margins to one relying on wind, sun or interconnectors at all times – and all of these are uncertain and guaranteed regularly to fail concurrently.

Two More Prizes

Storelectric has been awarded the 2022 prizes of Best Renewable Energy Storage Solutions Provider – UK and Best Compressed Air Energy Storage Specialists by Corp Today Magazine. Hurrah!

Thought Leadership Blog

This month Mark considers the infrastructure-scale transportation and storage of hydrogen. It has been sent to BEIS as his consultation submission. Read More…

As a second blog prompting by the uncovering of the “hunger stones” in the great rivers of central Europe, Mark considers the interplay between water scarcity, rising temperatures and power generation and storage. Read More…