The UK Government is failing to provide sufficient support for electricity storage technology, a trade body claimed yesterday.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers said it was important to secure supplies due to growing dependence on “intermittent” renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
Storing electricity on a large scale enables power generated when demand is low to be kept for release at peak demand periods.
Tim Fox, the institution’s head of energy and environment, said storage technologies could provide consumers with renewable electricity when they need it. “This will save on bills through not having to pay for dumped energy and unnecessary infrastructure,” he said. “For too long we’ve been reliant on using expensive back-up fossil fuel plants to cope with the inherent intermittency of many renewables.
“Electricity storage is potentially cleaner and once fully developed is likely to be much cheaper.”
Mr Fox claimed the potential value of storage to the UK power network was not well understood by Westminster.
A spokesman for the UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change said the government was supporting storage technologies as “part of £200million in funding to support low carbon innovation”.
