UK to pioneer energy innovation through batteries in homes as energy department announces £246m research funding
Renewables will be able to provide more of the UK’s energy when companies are able to store it more efficiently. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Batteries and renewable power sources are on the verge of bringing about an “epochal transformation” of the UK that could make energy clean, abundant and very cheap, according to a cabinet minister.
As the government unveiled plans for a more flexible energy system and £246m of funding for battery research, Greg Clark told the Guardian that a smarter grid would “radically” bring down bills.
“Energy, for the last 100 years, for good reasons, we’ve rationed the consumption of [because] it’s been very expensive and environmentally-damaging to consume fossil fuels. [But] given the possibilities we are on the cusp of at the moment, we might move to a world where energy is clean and abundant,”
said the business secretary.
Storing intermittent renewable power in batteries so it was ready when the grid needed it would bring down costs for everyone, including vulnerable and low income energy consumers, he said.
“If only we can capture it [power from the sun and wind] then we can go from energy being a worrying cost to people, to being, if not free, then very cheap,”
Clark said, speaking in Birmingham on Monday as he put energy at the centre of the government’s industrial strategy.
Read more: The Guardian