Energy storage holy grail is piece of cake

A team of engineers from the University of Nottingham has developed a new technology which they say could be ‘the world's greenest battery’. They are aiming to capture a slice of the global energy storage market which Bloomberg predicts will have received $620bn in investment by 2040.

The company’s unusual name, Cheesecake Energy Limited (CEL), reflects what they say is a ‘layered approach’ to energy storage. Most energy storage systems today rely on expensive and potentially harmful battery chemistry with high negative externalities such as from lithium and cobalt. In Cheesecake's system, electricity is safely and inexpensively stored as zero emission thermo-mechanical energy with no harmful chemicals involved.

The team has recently commenced work on a new contract for Highways England to investigate how low cost energy storage can contribute to the decarbonisation of transportation. The contract focuses on increasing the capacity of electric vehicle charging stations without waiting years for expensive upgrades to local electricity infrastructure.

As part of this work Cheesecake team members attended the Low Carbon Vehicle 2019 conference and expo in Millbank, with participation from many of the big names in the Electric Vehicle space.

Cheesecake co-founder and CEO Mike Simpson says, "It's clear now that EVs are the future. But as take-up begins to go mainstream we will see some challenges to the electricity grid infrastructure that require flexible solutions to be in place in order to avoid constraining the transition from fossil fuel based vehicles. Innovative solutions such as Cheesecake's energy storage system which are more cost-effective and greener than current solutions, will be crucial to enabling a higher penetration of renewable energy into the energy mix and fast-tracking the decarbonisation of transport."

Pictured  l-r: Paul Codd, Bharath Kantharaj, Mike Simpson, Seamus Garvey, Bruno Cardenas, James Garvey

For more information visit the Cheesecake Energy website