The Faraday Institution is working with partners on the Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) STEPS programme to strengthen the competitiveness of innovative storage providers by using a user-centric, demand-driven approach to bring products closer to market. STEPS aims to drive down the time energy storage SMEs typically spend on technology demonstration before reaching market maturity from an average of 5 years to 1-2, while maintaining maximum commercial usability.
Tailored Energy
As NWE is increasingly investing in distributed renewable energies (e.g., roof-mounted solar photovoltaics), the need for medium capacity energy storage solutions becomes apparent, with a market potential reaching 250bn by 2025. Heavily subsidised batteries from the US and Asia outpace EU suppliers through price-competition, and currently supply 80% of the storage market in NWE. Many of these mass-produced solutions are not tailored to the needs of local market segments including, e.g., housing providers, energy cooperatives and business parks. These use cases could benefit from tailored storage technologies, new technologies or adapted business models (e.g., storage-as-a-service).
AMTE Power plc (LON:AMTE) is a recognised brand in the production of high-quality lithium-ion batteries across a range of markets including automotive, aerospace, defence, oil & gas and energy storage. They have been been producing cells for over 30 years at their factory in Scotland, which can trace its roots back to the birth of lithium-ion battery cell technology, first patented in the UK.