Sunamp will receive £9.25m to develop and trial its thermal storage system in 100 homes across the UK.
The Tranent-based business will extend its existing heat battery to provide increased storage duration and capacity, pairing it with household energy systems to tackle periods of low renewables generation on the grid.
The funding is awarded through the Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration programme, part of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which provides money for low-carbon technologies and systems.
The project brings Sunamp together with other UK electrification start-ups, including myenergi, which designs and manufactures smart home energy products, and Ripple Energy, which enables consumers to own stakes in large-scale wind projects.
Fischer Future Heat will provide its installation workforce for the field-trial.
Sunamp is proposing a thermal storage system that directly replaces boilers fired by fossil fuels and will include an intelligent heating control to optimise electricity demand against heating demand patterns and tariffs.
A heat pump will charge renewable heat into large capacity time-shifting thermal storage, delivering space heating and hot water on demand. The bulk of input electrical energy is from offsite wind energy. Customers will have the option of part ownership of a wind farm through Ripple Energy. The proposed system uses smart control logic from myenergi and a significantly large thermal storage from Sunamp to overcome lulls in wind energy supply.
Sunamp chief executive Andrew Bissell said: “The money will be used to develop and test in 100 homes a first-of-a-kind thermal energy storage technology aimed at replacing fossil fuels and bringing forward the electrification of heat.
“Systems in homes will help the UK ride out lulls in renewable energy generation and will allow homeowners to cut their carbon emissions and benefit from lower cost tariffs for flexible demand and participation in grid-supporting measures.”
Lee Sutton, chief executive of myenergi, added: “While we're is best-known for our zappi electric vehicle charger, our smart controller technology can support a broad range of heating and hot water applications, as we will show in this trial.
“To get to net zero, it is vital that we decarbonise heat as quickly as possible, and we are proud to be playing our part in supporting consumers to switch from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.”
Don't miss the latest headlines with our twice-daily newsletter - sign up here for free.
