StorTera, an Edinburgh based developer of intelligent energy storage solutions, has secured £5 million of funding from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) to develop a long-lasting megawatt scale battery that can operate for up to eight hours.
StorTera’s single liquid flow battery (SLIQ) will offer flexibility to the grid by storing electricity which can then be released to the grid at peak times when weather dependent technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels have periods of decreased energy generation.
The battery will be installed at the Midlothian Innovation Centre (MIC) in 2024. StorTera’s battery at the MIC will be fully optimised operating at high efficiency during its 30-year lifespan while suffering minimal degradation due to its maintenance system.
StorTera’s funding was included in phase 2 of the BEIS’ Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration Programme (LODES) which defines this type of storage as any technology that can output stored energy at full capacity over a period longer than four hours.
The funding will see StorTera, based at Castlebrae Business Centre in Edinburgh, double its number of employees to 28. A new facility featuring laboratory and test facilities will be established at a new location in Scotland to scale up the manufacturing and development of the SLIQ. StorTera aims to build a circular economy around the SLIQ by utilising recycled and recyclable materials such as a by-product of the wood industry and reusing sulphur from oil and gas.