Pivot Power and redT are to collaborate on a grid-scale hybrid battery storage project which claims to be the world’s first to use a combination of lithium-ion and vanadium redox flow technologies.
Pivot Power is to lead a consortium of companies which will develop a £41 million ‘SuperHub’ in Oxford, incorporating grid-scale batteries, high speed EV chargers and hundred of ground source heat pumps for local homes.
The project is one of four unveiled by the government today (3 April 2019) and will be supported by a £10 million grant from UK Research and Innovation.
The consortium comprises Oxford City Council, Habitat Energy, Kensa Contracting, redT and the University of Oxford.
The entire project has been tagged at £41 million and will establish what the consortium also claims to be the world’s largest commercial hybrid energy storage system at 50MW, incorporating technologies outside of the standard lithium-ion.
RedT, which recently announced a landmark C&I solar-plus-storage programme with Statkraft, will supply 5MWh of flow machines, which will be ‘hybridised’ with a 48MW/50MWh lithium-ion battery system connected at the transmission level.
RedT also confirmed the storage system is to support a local EV charging network consisting of around 100 ultra-rapid and fast chargers.
The hub will meanwhile become one of Pivot Power’s 45 so-called SuperHubs, which combine large-scale battery storage and rapid electric vehicle charging points at convenient destinations for consumers.
Pivot Power unveiled its plans for a multi-billion-pound UK-wide network of battery storage and EV charger installations to much fanfare last year.
Matthew Boulton, COO at Pivot Power, said the project was the start of his company providing the mass charging network needed to “kick-start an electric vehicle revolution” in Oxford, while simultaneously helping the city’s decarbonisation objectives.
“We are hoping to encourage all sorts of other Oxford groups – residents, commuters, bus companies, logistics operators – to take advantage of the power we are bringing to the south of the city and switch to electric vehicles,” he said.