MoCha - TheMES: Motorway Charging using Thermo-Mechanical Energy Storage

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Title
MoCha - TheMES: Motorway Charging using Thermo-Mechanical Energy Storage

CoPED ID
bbc0f2ab-0634-4bdf-91ec-dcc1b9308691

Status
Closed


Value
No funds listed.

Start Date
Aug. 31, 2019

End Date
Oct. 31, 2019

Description

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TITLE: MoCha TheMES: Motorway Charging using advanced Thermo-Mechanical Energy Storage. The future of road transport is electric. For cars, this has been evident for over two years. Today it is fairly broadly accepted that this is also true for all vehicles ranging from motorcycles to HGVs. The electric vehicle (EV) revolution has been extraordinarily rapid and every major vehicle manufacturer now has a clear set of plans in place to replace products powered by internal combustion engines with EVs. EVs will make major contributions to improving air quality and to enabling a more digitally-integrated transport system. The development of a charging infrastructure has not kept pace with the roll-out of EVs, leading to a major opportunity. Charging infrastructure is relatively straightforward if suitable electrical 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 always be substantially behind the curve. Moreover, grid reinforcements alone will not ever 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 in the tightly interconnected set of UK 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 for relatively short periods of time 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 a design for a specific Thermo-Mechanical Energy Storage System at the stage of an unproven but conceptually well-developed concept. The CEL system combines electricity storage in the form of compressed air with storage in the form of heat at very low cost.

Subjects by relevance
  1. Infrastructures
  2. Electrical power networks
  3. Warehousing
  4. Transport
  5. Renewable energy sources
  6. Energy
  7. Distribution of electricity
  8. Traffic

Extracted key phrases
  1. Mocha themes solution
  2. Mechanical Energy Storage System
  3. Motorway Charging
  4. Advanced Thermo
  5. Suitable electrical grid infrastructure
  6. Cheesecake Energy Ltd.
  7. Specific Thermo
  8. Local energy storage
  9. Major vehicle manufacturer
  10. Major new source
  11. Major trunk road
  12. Transport system
  13. New grid
  14. Electricity grid
  15. Road transport

Related Pages

UKRI project entry

UK Project Locations