LONDON, UK: Invinity Energy Systems plc (AIM:IES), a leading global manufacturer of utility-grade energy storage, has been awarded £708,371 of funding from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) under Phase 1 of the Longer Duration Energy Storage (LODES) Demonstration competition.
This award will fund a comprehensive planning and feasibility study on what could become one of the UK’s largest co-located solar and energy storage projects. If Phase 1 is deemed successful, the Company then expects the project to progress through financial close and to the construction of a 40 MWh Invinity Vanadium Flow Battery (VFB) funded in part by BEIS via Phase 2 of the LODES programme.
Invinity Storage Systems is leading the project consortium, which includes Pivot Power, part of EDF Renewables, and EDF R&D UK, with the objective of progressing this first-of-a-kind project towards financial close and ultimately delivery.
With the aim of generating low-cost, low-carbon, dispatchable energy as part of the UK’s journey to Net Zero, the project will serve as a template for other grid-constrained solar generation sites globally.
This competition forms part of the Government’s 10-Point Plan, announced in November 2020, in which £100m has been committed to address “Energy Storage and Flexibility Innovation Challenges” and accelerate commercialisation of innovative Long Duration Energy Storage projects that will accelerate the UK’s progress towards Net Zero.
Invinity’s project falls under Stream 1 of the competition which focuses on longer duration energy storage technologies that can deliver a minimum of 4 hours of storage, allowing more renewable generation to be integrated on to the UK network while mitigating the need for expensive connection upgrades.
The funding award covers expenses related to the project feasibility study and includes the purchase of two Invinity VS3 units for testing and validation purposes to support the project’s progression to financial close. As planned, this activity is also expected to deliver further cost reductions and performance enhancements to Invinity’s VS3 product.
Work on the Phase 1 feasibility study has already commenced and is expected to progress throughout 2022.
Energy & Climate Change Minister Greg Hands said: “Driving forward energy storage technologies will be vital in our transition towards cheap, clean and secure renewable energy.
“It will allow us to extract the full benefit from our home-grown renewable energy sources, drive down costs and end our reliance on volatile and expensive fossil fuels. Through this competition we are making sure the country’s most innovative scientists and thinkers have our backing to make this ambition a reality.”
Larry Zulch, Chief Executive Officer at Invinity Energy Systems said: “The LODES initiatives are yet another demonstration of the UK’s commitment to building a thriving low carbon economy. Invinity greatly appreciates BEIS’s vision for that future, especially the vital role that safe, reliable and robust long-duration energy storage has to play on a Net Zero UK electric grid.
In realizing that vision we are tremendously pleased to be working again with BEIS, Pivot Power and EDF to plan the deployment of a vanadium flow battery eight times the size of the one currently operating at Energy Superhub Oxford.”
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