UKRI puts £28m into ultra-long duration energy storage
A new grant challenge will back advanced batteries and underground hydrogen storage. The per-award figures and the closing date have not been published.
UK Research and Innovation is putting £28m into a grant challenge for energy storage technology.
The programme is called the Ultra-Long Duration Energy Storage challenge, or Ultra-LDES.
It will hand out grants for the development of new storage technology. Advanced batteries and underground hydrogen storage are both named as targets.
UKRI's stated purpose is to reduce how much the UK depends on more expensive sources of power.
Ultra-long duration storage is the part of the grid problem that lithium-ion does not solve. It covers holding energy for days or weeks rather than hours.
The competition is open to UK innovators. UKRI has not set out further eligibility criteria.
The size of individual awards has not been announced. Nor has the number of grants the £28m is expected to fund.
No application deadline has been published.
For a founder in the sector, the practical step is the same either way: watch for the competition to appear on UKRI's funding service, where the eligibility rules and the closing date will be set out.
Hardware companies in this field typically raise against grant funding rather than instead of it. A £28m pot spread across a technology area this broad is unlikely to fund a single company to commercial scale, but it is the kind of money that pays for a pilot.