The future of road transport is electric. The electric vehicle (EV) revolution has been extraordinarily rapid and every major vehicle manufacturer now has plans in place to replace conventional vehicles with EVs. This will make major contributions to improving air quality and will enable a more digitally-integrated transport system.

Charging infrastructure for EVs is relatively straightforward if suitable electricity grid infrastructure is already in place. This is not the case. At present, the UK consumes more energy each year to power its transport than the entire amount of energy delivered over the electricity grid in the same year. Thus, as EVs continue to grow, they will quickly overwhelm the existing electrical grid infrastructure at certain critical locations, most notably in the distribution network. The electrification of transport will clearly require major upgrades to both the UK's generation fleet and its transmission and distribution networks. Given time and investment, these upgrades are achievable - but the rate of EV introduction means that they will be substantially behind the curve. Moreover, grid reinforcements alone will not provide a complete solution - or an economic one. We would still need major new sources of flexibility in the electricity system somewhere AND the utilisation of a high proportion of that new grid would be very low.

MoCha TheMES is about solving that problem in a way that is: (1) very cost effective, (2) environmentally friendly, (3) highly conducive to the development of new internationally-leading business streams in the UK and (4) also very compatible with export to developing countries to assist them in evolving combined energy and transport systems that can leapfrog infrastructure investments made in developed markets.

The MoCha TheMES solution hinges around providing local energy storage at each EV charging location on motorways and major trunk roads. This local storage assists in integrating renewable energy generation directly into support for the future EV charging network and enables high-power charging to be accessible at charging stations during periods of peak demand even though the grid connections of such stations are not yet sufficiently strong to support these charging powers directly. Cheesecake Energy Ltd. (CEL) proposes to lead this project. CEL has proven the feasibility of its thermo-mechanical energy storage system and is ready to implement the prototype. The CEL system combines electricity storage in the form of compressed air with storage in the form of heat at very low cost.