EvoEnergy are to install Europe’s largest community battery storage (2MWh) project at a new pioneering housing development in Nottingham as part of a wider community energy scheme that will pilot how to lower costs, reduce carbon, and allow residents to better engage with the energy they consume.
Trent Basin, a new development by Blueprint on the banks of the River Trent in Nottingham, has been selected to pilot the new energy system that will also include solar PV panels to generate energy onsite that can be stored and distributed to the residents via the battery. Heat stores and ground source heat pumps will also be installed onsite.
EvoEnergy were awarded the battery storage installation due to their depth of knowledge, best value, level of innovation and by providing the most developed battery financial model. Their ability to support future operation and maintenance of the battery was also a factor.
Mike Salisbury, Head of Engineering at EvoEnergy, commented;
“It is a pleasure to be awarded the opportunity to work alongside like-minded companies and individuals that share the same vision as ourselves for the future of energy storage technology. The locality of the project also increases the sentiment and we’re delighted that we can now bring to life the commercial viability of two years’ hard work and planning for a ground-breaking project that will provide a repeatable and scalable model for the future.”
The project has been in planning for 3 years with a consortium of business, government and academia coming together to bring the project to life including; BluePrint, The University of Nottingham, AT Kearney, Smartklub, Siemens, URBED, Slam Jam, Sticky World, Loughborough University and Nottingham City Council.
The project is also supported by £6m of grant funding from Innovate UK, via two Energy programmes; The Energy Research Accelerator and Project SCENe.
Homeowners at Trent Basin can opt-in to use the Community Energy System and in return will benefit from the various technologies onsite to bring them significantly cheaper energy bills. The pilot scheme will provide valuable research for potential roll out across larger new residential developments in the UK, creating a change in the way energy is generated, stored and consumed at community levels Nationwide for the benefit of consumers and reducing carbon emissions in the UK.
In addition to generating energy onsite, the community energy system will still be connected to the grid, able to buy and store power when there is surplus energy available at a cheaper rate, and then redistribute during times when demand is above what is being generated onsite. In effect, the system will help smoothen out the peaks and troughs of supply and demand during both the day time and night.
The battery installation is expected to start in the Summer/Autumn of 2017 and take around 2 months to complete.