Two British companies have been awarded over £8million to spur on innovation in storing energy, Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker has announced.

The announcement comes as UK public funders of low carbon innovation today provide enhanced investor certainty, with the publication of a joint Strategic Framework by the Low Carbon Innovation Coordination Group.

The contract has been awarded to a partnership of Viridor Waste Management Ltd and Highview Power Storage, as part of the Department of Energy and Climate Change's innovation competition to support energy storage technology research and development.

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Viridor and Highview will use the funding to develop a technology to store air in a liquid format, which can then be used to supply electricity at times of high demand. The technology will be connected to the National Grid, and will be used to test balancing supply and demand using stored energy.

Minister Barker said: "Storing energy will become increasingly important in the move towards a low carbon economy, and has the potential to save the energy system over £4 billion by 2050.

"Energy storage systems are potentially revolutionary technologies - just imagine how much the energy system will change if we're able to manage supply and demand better by storing energy cost-effectively, not to mention the benefits for British research and manufacturing industries."

(CD/MH)