Projects

Lead organisation: University of Sheffield

Funder: Engineering & Physical Science Research Council

Project duration: October 22 – October 24

Project website

Increased energy storage is needed on the electrical network to support high levels of variable renewable electricity such as wind and solar to enable us to reach our net-zero goals. The UK network currently has 5.3GW of energy storage of which 1.3GW is battery energy storage and this is expected to grow by at least 8GW by 2030. However, this alone does not meet the estimated required capacity, we therefore need to use the storage that we have optimally, for example, the location of storage and when we use it is critical to avoid congestion on the network. We also need to promote the installation of different types of storage that can operate over different time scales so that for example excess generation in one season can be used in the next.

The aim of the project is to determine how different distributed energy storage assets, of different sizes and technologies, can be integrated into the grid as part of a whole-system solution to enable adaptability, flexibility and resilience. The project will investigate where and how assets are connected to the grid, how they are controlled and what policies and market conditions are required to meet our storage requirements. The research will be carried out across 5 collaborating institutions with the work underpinned by experiments using operational grid-scale storage demonstrators operated within the consortium.

The outputs will include:

• Recommendations for optimal planning and scheduling of distributed storage under different policy and market conditions including incentives/regulation of locational deployment
• The impacts of different levels of coordination of distributed storage across location, scale, and markets
• Demonstrations of practical, scalable solutions for the coordinated control of storage assets and other sources of flexibility
• A roadmap that describes the decision points and options for the energy system as distributed energy storage grows according to different scenarios to 2035.

Lead organisation: University of Cambridge

Funder: Engineering & Physical Science Research Council

Project duration: January 22 – December 24

Project website

Heating and cooling are essential to our lives. We rely on them for comfort in our homes and vehicles, and businesses need heating and cooling for productive workplaces and industrial processes. Taken together, space and process heating and cooling represent the biggest contribution to the UK's energy consumption, and the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Heating is primarily provided from burning natural gas, whereas cooling is primarily provided from compressing volatile fluorinated gases. However, these conventional technologies are neither efficient, not friendly to the environment.
Barocaloric effects are reversible thermal changes that occur in mechanically responsive solids when subjected to changes in pressure. These effects are analogous to the pressure-induced thermal changes in gases that are exploited in current heat pumps, but they promise higher energy efficiencies and obviate the need for harmful greenhouse gases.

We aim at developing an energy-efficient barocaloric heat pump based on novel barocaloric hybrid composite materials that combine the best properties of organic barocaloric materials, namely extremely large pressure-driven thermal changes, and the best of inorganic barocaloric materials, namely high thermal conductivity and low hysteresis.

A technological transformation of this magnitude will require the development of bespoke economic and policy strategies for its successful deployment. Therefore, we aim at developing a fully integrated bespoke economic and policy strategy that will support the innovation of BC heat pumps through to commercialisation.

The achievement of heat pumps that operate using barocaloric materials instead of gases will permit decarbonising heating and cooling, provide energy independence, and enable the UK to become the world leader on this emerging technology.

Lead organisation: University of Birmingham

Funder: Engineering & Physical Science Research Council

Project duration: July 21 – June 23

Project website

Part of the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) led by Heriot-Watt University, the objective of the project is to inform the design of new technologies, infrastructure and systems to provide low-carbon energy (as gas, heat or electricity) to industry, enabled by the six main clusters, and drive large-scale decarbonisation. This includes low-carbon gas and heat either produced at clusters and distributed to other locations, through pipelines/transport, or locally. We will co-develop a framework with industry partners to capture and analyse data, assess potential options and develop implementation pathways, which will be applied at a national scale.

Lead organisation: Black Country Consortium Ltd

Funder: Innovate UK

Project duration: January 21 – February 23

Project website

Repowering the Black Country is a programme of initiatives supporting Black Country businesses to take advantage of global clean growth opportunities and to make the transition to a net-zero industrial future. The project will initially develop four Zero Carbon industrial hubs in the Black Country. Within the next 10 years, we aim to reduce industrial carbon emissions by around 1.3m tCO2.

Lead organisation: University of Birmingham

Funder: Engineering & Physical Science Research Council

Project duration: September 19 – September 24

Project website

The development of energy storage technologies is vital to the UK’s low energy networks, helping to bring carbon emissions to Net Zero by 2050. The Supergen Energy Storage Network+ is an integrated, forward-looking platform that supports, nurtures the expertise of the energy storage community, disseminating it through academia, industry, and policy, at a particularly important time when decisions on future funding and research strategy are still being resolved.