A competition to boost British battery technology is to be announced today as part of a £246 million government investment. Greg Clark, the business secretary, will launch the first phase of funding, worth £45 million, in a speech on industrial strategy in Birmingham. The government will provide the investment for a series of competitions in the next four years, aiming to boost the research and development of expertise in battery technology. The first part of the Faraday Challenge, named after the pioneering scientist, will be a competition led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to bring the best minds together to create a Battery Institute. Philip Nelson, chief executive of the research council, said that batteries would be key to a low carbon economy, including their use in cars, aircraft, consumer electronics and grid storage. The announcement comes after a review by Sir Mark Walpole, commissioned as part of the industrial strategy green paper that recommended extra government funding in the area.
Times 24th July 2017 read more »
Britain could soon be relying on battery power under plans to create a network of electrical storage facilities around the national grid. Greg Clark, the business secretary, is expected to announce plans this week for giant rechargeable battery facilities to be installed near wind and solar farms to store the energy generated when demand is low. It can then be released when demand rises. Households will also be encouraged to switch to battery power – for example, installing batteries alongside solar panels. Clark said battery storage would cut costs and improve reliability: “We get 14% of our electricity from intermittent sources [such as wind and solar] . . . but this intermittency does add costs.” Chris Hewett of the Solar Trade Association said: “Installing batteries alongside solar power would reduce overall costs to the electricity system and allow the country to have cheap solar at the heart of its power system.”
Times 23rd June 2017 read more »