Past EESG Chair, Prof Ian Arbon was the Lead Author of the report and Daniel Kenning and Michael Reid are also credited contributors.
Although covering similar ground to other major reports as far as ‘energy storage for electricity’ is concerned, this report breaks new ground with comprehensive coverage of energy storage for heat (the UK’s greatest sector of energy demand) and for transport. The report demonstrates that, while most large-scale energy storage for electricity projects have a high ‘mechanical’ engineering content, those for heat and transport very predominantly involve mechanical engineering, so it is apt that IMechE is, once again, providing real leadership in this field.
The report attempts to list all of the energy storage systems (from domestic to utility scale) which are at or close to commercial viability and, in another new approach, lists the significant advantages and disadvantages of each type, as well as considering the sustainability of each technology, especially in terms of materials and fluids utilised.
As is usual in current IMechE reports, there are three headline recommendations:
1. Government needs to focus on heat and transport, as well as electricity.
2. Government must recognise that energy storage cannot be incentivised by conventional market mechanisms.
3. The UK must reject its obsession with 'cheapness' in the energy sector.
The report has been well received in industry and academia; the full report can be downloaded free of charge from the Institution’s website.
As an immediate follow-up to the report, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will be holding a one day conference in Birmingham on 23 September 2014, which will be chaired by Ian Arbon; the conference, “Energy Storage: an integrated approach”, will particularly address renewable energy storage, the mechanics behind the technologies, the current position of UK policy and targets and future developments. Although there will still be a focus in this conference on energy storage for electricity (since this is where most current interest is focussed), the intention is to broaden the scope to energy storage for the heat and transport sectors at further conferences next year.