Storage of Energy and Power Systems (STEPS)
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Project Manager: OostNL (NL)
Knowledge institutions: Cambridge Cleantech (UK), Technical University of Darmstadt (DE), UGhent (BE), University of Galway (IE), and University Twente (NL).
Business support partners: 3 Counties Energy Agency (IE), Flux50 (BE), House of Energy (DE), OostNL (NL), POM East Flanders (BE), and The Faraday Institution (UK),
: € 5.06M (total)
: Subsidy Interreg: € 3.04M (60%) + co-funded (10% VEKA, 10% VLAIO)
The core of the Interreg North-West Europe STEPS project (Storage of Energy & Power Systems) is taking significant steps in the field of energy storage. This project revolves around innovative companies that develop solutions for energy storage.
In the medium-sized energy storage systems sector, we see a lot of mass production from the US and Asia flooding the EU market. Many of these mass-production solutions are not tailored to the needs of local market segments, who would benefit from tailor-made storage technologies, new technologies or other business models. Innovative Northwest Europe (new) energy storage products are currently often stuck on TRL5/6 due to barriers, such as fragmented legislation and funding sources, limited access to pilot sites, and limited knowledge of end-users.
Business support programme
In STEPS, business support partners and knowledge partners from Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have joined forces to strengthen the competitiveness of innovative providers of energy storage (e-storage) in NWE, by promoting tailor-made storage, further developing and testing new technologies, developing new business models, strengthening the value chain, and more.
Through two calls, 40 SMEs received support (value € 12,500) from universities to further develop their energy storage solutions. 20 SMEs were given the opportunity to apply their product or service concretely on a test bed (value € 50,000) to increase the TRL from 5 to 6/7 or higher. In these test environments, the generation and distribution of electricity come together with energy storage products. The parties can further develop their products for the specific electricity market in the country concerned, as well as for Northwest Europe.
For example, Octave tested its storage system on Terranova Solar to compensate for reactive energy from pumps at the water treatment plant. Bright Energy searched for the limits of its construction site battery at Green Energy Park. Locquet Motors, Near Grid Solutions, and Solenco also used the test beds.
Other activities include:
- Advising 200 local e-storage SMEs when entering new markets in NWE, by mapping the specific regulations, business opportunities, and financing options in those regions.
- Create market pull in NWE for e-storage solutions by responding to end-user needs and raising provider awareness. In Flanders, two events were organized around batteries for construction sites, in which 2 times 85 people from the construction world, through presentations and demonstrations from five providers, learned that construction site batteries have played a mature and financially attractive role in larger buildings in recent years, especially in combination with tower cranes.
While the project will be completed in the summer of 2023, it will continue in the form of a learning network around energy storage within the framework of Flux50.