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£20 million incentive for UK energy storage solutions

The U.K. government has made £20 million available to encourage innovation in energy storage systems.

The competition aims to encourage innovation in energy storage systems.

Flickr/Benjamin Chun

The lion's share of the funding – £17 million – has been made available through the energy storage technology demonstration competition.

Companies have until December 13, 2012, to apply for the first stage of the competition, where up to £40,000 can be secured for energy storage project designs. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is expecting up to ten successful designs.

In phase two of the competition, successful projects can apply for up to £12 million to test and demonstrate their energy storage designs. Overall, DECC anticipates funding up to three projects.

A separate funding pot, for which the same companies can apply, will make £3 million available in two rounds of funding for the energy storage systems component research and feasibility studies competition.

Under this scheme, companies can secure up to £1 million to improve components and materials, or to develop feasibility studies to explore how energy storage systems work and can be used in the U.K. national grid.

The first round of applications for this scheme ends at noon on December 13, 2012, with a second round ending at noon on March 27, 2013. A briefing event about both competitions will be held in London on November 6, 2012.

"As we move towards a low carbon future, the ability to store energy when we don’t need it, for times when we do, will become even more important, helping us balance our electricity network and use more clean green power," said U.K. energy and climate change minister, Greg Barker. "This investment will help boost innovation in this area and bring more technologies into this growing market."