RenewableUK has published new statistics showing that the number of applications to build battery storage projects in the UK continues to increase rapidly.

“Batteries play a key role in our modern flexible energy system, helping grid operators to finely balance the supply of electricity to meet demand, and providing extra power resources when needed.”

The report shows that the total cumulative capacity of battery storage planning applications has soared from nearly 6,900MW a year ago to over 10,500MW today — “enough to fully charge over a million electric vehicles”.

The market has developed extremely rapidly; in 2012, applications stood at just 2MW.

The number of UK companies involved in the sector has grown from 300 to more than 450 in the last 12 months alone, and the average battery project size has increased slightly (from 27MW to 28MW).

RenewableUK (www.renewableuk.com) says that the pipeline of storage projects is expected to continue growing and that an increasing number of grid-scale battery projects of over 50MW is expected, after the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy agreed earlier this year to change planning rules “which have, up to now, deterred development at this scale.”

The new figures were unveiled at Energy Systems Storage 2019, an event held in London and organised by RenewableUK in conjunction with the Solar Trade Association.

Those attending heard that, while lithium batteries make up the vast majority of current projects, the next phase of growth will include a wide range of new technologies.

Some companies are developing hydrogen, ammonia and compressed air technologies. Indeed, the report shows that the UK now has a pipe-line of over 600MW of compressed-air or liquid-air storage projects in development.

Meanwhile, Gravitricity is developing gravity-based storage, OXTO Energy is pioneering the use of flywheels in energy storage, and RheEnergise is developing ‘dense liquids’ as an alternative to pumped storage.