UK getting HUGE Battery Storage and Electric Car Charging Network

Pivot Power are creating a huge battery storage network in the UK which will balance grid demands and deliver an enormous electric car charging network.

In the UK we’ve been busy dumping electric generation from fossil sources – which is all very admirable, if rather costly – but there is a downside.

The downside is the imbalance stuff like wind power and solar energy bring because they are entirely dependent on the weather, something that’s not entirely predictable on our little rock in the North Atlantic.

What is needed is a way to balance that intermittent power delivery by storing excess electricity which can then be put back in to the grid when demand exceeds immediately available power. And that’s exactly what Pivot Power are doing.

Pivot Power are planning to build a 2-gigawatt network of grid-scale batteries at 45 sites at electric substations around the UK which are connected to the grid, with the ability to store enough electricity to power 235,000 homes for a day. Or, to put it another way, the ability to absorb or release two thirds the power of Hinkley C Nuclear Power Station.

It’s a simple solution to smoothing the peaks and troughs of energy generation, but it also promises to be a big deal for the charging of electric cars too.

Pivot Power say that each of the electric car charging stations they are building will accommodate over 100 EVs charging at the same time, and do so without impact on the grid. Which is a potentially a proper game-changer for the electric car.

The entire grid will take a while to build, but Pivot Power say they will have 10 stations open in the next 18 months, and the first is planned to be operational next year.