ITM Power set to offer energy storage for EcoIsland project

ITM will provide technology to convert renewable energy from both domestic generation and power plants to hydrogen for subsequent use in fuel cells and vehicles.

‘The problem when you’re trying to take an island of 142,000 people off-grid is really the storage solution,’ EcoIsland founder David Green told The Engineer.

The EcoIsland project leaves open the possibility of some degree of energy autonomy for households or communities through microgrids

The EcoIsland project aims to make the entire island carbon neutral and energy independent by 2020 (with further ambitions to be a net exporter of energy) based on a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, tidal and waste-to-energy generation.

It has so far secured £200m worth of private funding and enlisted a number of high-profile development partners, including IBM, Toshiba, Cable & Wireless and SilverSpring.

‘The big problem is about demand and supply balancing, finding this magical solution of not increasing the overall flow in the grid but trying to get to a point where you can take surplus generating capacity and store it,hold it and release it when you need it,’ Green said.