In the future, energy storage and the storage of energy services will be one of the main mechanisms by which the mismatch between resource availability and service demand is resolved.

As the UK transitions to a sustainable future in which the net emission of CO2 is driven to zero, it is inevitable that solar power and offshore wind power will deliver large fractions of the total energy requirement. In this future, energy storage and the storage of energy services will be one of the main mechanisms by which the mismatch between resource availability and service demand is resolved.

Different technology sets are appropriate for addressing different storage durations. Supercapacitors and flywheels dominate the very short discharge durations. Batteries and demand-side response combine to provide very effective solutions for discharge durations up to 2-3 hours.

Fuels of different sorts such as hydrogen, ammonia, bio-ethanol, bio-methane etc. deliver very attractive options for long-durations where energy may be stored for years and discharged over periods of months. A fundamental, and still unresolved, question is whether there is a role for storage technologies which are suited to discharge durations between 3-4 hours and ~100-200 hours.

Sponsored by The Energy Research Accelerator and by Supergen Energy Storage Network+, this unique event, which took place online on Monday 16th March aimed to address that question head-on. 

Session 1

Seamus Garvey Neville Rieger Professor of Dynamics, University of Nottingham
Medium-Duration Energy Storage explained

Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith FRS, Professor and Director of Energy Research at the University of Oxford.
The need for Energy Storage in a Net Zero World.

Goran Strbac, Professor of Energy Systems at Imperial College.
What energy systems modelling indicates that we need in terms of energy storage.

Henrik Stiesdal, Former CTO Siemens Windpower
Energy storage for high penetrations of offshore wind: needs and solutions.

Session 2

Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy, University of Birmingham.
Storage of coolth (coldness) as a means of introducing flexibility into the electricity grid.

Angelos Chatzidiakos, Ramboll, UK.
Pit Thermal Energy Storage, Experience and working systems.

Seamus Garvey, Neville Rieger Professor of Dynamics,
University of Nottingham. Technologies for energy storage especially suited to the integration of high penetrations of offshore wind.

Session 3

Gareth Brett, CTO of Highview Power Ltd.
Experiences in designing and operating liquid air energy storage.

Simon Branch, CEO of Innovatium LLP.
Exploiting liquid air to transform industrial air compression into a service delivering medium-duration energy service storage.

Session 4

Haisheng Chen, Professor of Propulsion and Power at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
Research Progress of Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage in China.

Ziping Feng, Professor at Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou.
How ice slurry technology can unlock the electrification of winter heating in Northern Europe.