IMechE calls on UK government to support electricity storage

In a statement, Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the IMechE, said: ‘As the UK ramps up its dependence on power generation from intermittent renewable energy sources, like the wind, the need to develop electricity storage technologies becomes ever more pressing.

‘These technologies hold the key to providing consumers with renewable electricity when they need it, rather than just when the wind is blowing. This will save on bills through not having to pay for dumped energy and unnecessary infrastructure.

‘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.

‘But government incentives and policies to support development and deployment of electricity storage technologies are currently scant and ill-designed. The potential value of storage to the UK power network is at present not well understood by Westminster.’