(Repost: Energy Storage News)

Government policy and regulation offer the biggest barriers to the deployment of battery energy storage in the UK according to a cross-party group of MPs focussed on energy storage, which claims 12GW of batteries could be deployed by 2021 under the right circumstances.

Working with the UK’s Renewable Energy Association (REA), the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Energy Storage released a report on Thursday night at its Winter Parliamentary Reception in the House of Commons that analysed the impact of policy change on the roll-out of batteries in the UK.

It asserts that there is “a clear requirement for energy storage at home and abroad”, whether to increase energy self-reliance, maximise the efficiency of renewable generators, support the roll-out of electric vehicles or help balance the grid.

However, the Batteries, Exports, and Energy Security report adds that this will not be achieved without an improved regulatory landscape.

“Despite improving supply chains and rapidly falling battery costs, in the UK the entrenched barrier to the widespread deployment of lithium-ion battery storage…remains government policy and regulation,” it states.

“A rapid upgrading of the regulatory system would allow a wide range of storage technologies to take of nationwide.”

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