United Kingdom Energy Storage Market
The UK has the largest installed capacity of offshore wind in the world, however because the availability and speed of wind is not constant, energy can sometimes be produced when it is not needed and then lost. Batteries and other energy storage methods are vital for managing supply from renewable sources, which naturally fluctuate over hours, days and weeks, helping grid operators to finely balance the supply of electricity to meet demand. Indeed, flexible technologies like batteries form a key part of the UK’s smarter electricity grid, supporting the integration of more low-carbon power, heat, and transport technologies.
Utility-scale energy storage activity in the UK saw strong growth during 2021, with annual deployment growing 70% compared to 2020. Additionally, the pipeline of future projects increased by 11 GW (across 225 sites) to over 27 GW by the end of 2021. This staggering growth has been driven mainly by a change in legislation in December 2020, allowing local planning authorities to determine projects with a capacity of over 50MW in England and 350MW in Wales. Previously these were determined by the central Government, making the process longer and more complex.
In 2021, two pre-applications were submitted for 500 MW stand-alone sites, the largest energy storage sites seen in planning so far. Both projects will be in Scotland and were submitted by Alcemi Storage Developments.
The total installed capacity of utility-scale storage is now approaching 1.7 GW across 127 sites, with 446 MW of utility-scale energy storage installed in 2021 alone.
The average size of utility-scale energy storage sites has also increased: the average project size in 2017 was less than 6 MW: in 2021, the average project size was 45 MW. Also, in previous years, there was more of a mix of project sizes. In 2021, most sites installed were stand-alone.
When looking at the asset owners of these operational sites, specifically in 2021, many are owned by large asset owners such as Gresham House and Pivot Power. These companies have huge pipelines of energy storage projects, which are now starting to be constructed.
So far, the market has been dominated by sites with 1-hour duration storage. However, there is an increasing amount of longer-duration storage sites starting to emerge within the pipeline. The UK Government has awarded £6.7 million in funding for innovative longer duration energy storage projects. Further info and key players involved are listed at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/longer-duration-energy-storage-demonstration-programme-successful-projects
Trade associations
The Association for Decentralized Energy
Regen, a not-for-profit center of energy expertise and market insight
REA, the Association for Renewable Energy & Clean Technology
Trade shows
Trade events provide an excellent opportunity to access potential buyers and establish partnerships in Europe. Below is the list of upcoming profile trade shows.
Energy Storage Summit
Solar & Storage Live
All-Energy
For more information, please contact Claudia Colombo