Sheffield’s Giant Battery

Kirsty Broughton

A major step towards greener energy in the UK was taken last month with the opening of an industrial-scale ‘mega-battery’ site owned by E.ON in Sheffield.

The Sheffield site located in Blackburn Meadows is being hailed as the first of its kind in the UK. It has the capacity to store or release 10MW of energy – the equivalent of half a million phone batteries, and is contained in four 40 foot long shipping containers. The batteries are from the next generation of battery energy storage, and can respond in less than a second to changes in energy output – ten times faster than previous models.

Such promising technology has naturally lead to further investments, and the Sheffield site will soon be dwarfed by significantly larger plants. Centrica (the owner of British Gas) and EDF Energy are both in the process of creating 49MW facilities in Cumbria and Nottinghamshire respectively.

When more energy is being put out into the national grid than is being used by consumers, the batteries will take in the excess power and store it. Then, during periods when consumers are using more energy than the grid can provide, the batteries can release this excess energy into the grid, to ensure that everyone has access to power.

This is especially important considering that the UK energy mix is containing an ever-increasing proportion of intermittent sources, such as wind and solar power. June this year saw 70% of the electricity produced from nuclear, wind and solar sources. For the government to hit legally-binding carbon-cutting targets this needs to be the standard for electricity production, but storage is likely to be necessary to balance the intermittency of renewable supplies.

To meet these targets the government introduced a ‘capacity market’ – a subsidy scheme integral to the shake-up of the electricity market. It is designed to ensure energy security particularly during times of high demand, such as the winter months. The scheme has a pot containing £65.9 million, which it will divide between energy suppliers than can guarantee a constant energy supply. It may sound surprising that in the age of austerity the government that is ever-interested in penny pinching is wanting to hand out money. However, it is estimated that the Sheffield site alone could save £200 million over the next four years by increasing energy efficiency. This certainly makes the £3.89 million awarded to E.ON a worthy investment.

E.ON has seen share prices in Germany dramatically fall as it is undercut by abundant, cheaper renewable energy from other suppliers. Germany is often hailed as world leader in renewable energy production, and during a weekend in May of this year 85% of energy production was from renewable sources. E.ON in the UK was following down the same path, as in recent years UK profits have stagnated, and trade has fallen by up to 9%. It was only in March of this year that profits began to pick up again, due to the company shifting away from fossil-fuels and towards green energy production. The battery site in Sheffield is an excellent next step in this major shift.

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