Energy Bridge

Project lead: Sunamp Ltd

Local Energy Challenge Fund award amount: £25,000

Area: TBC

Vision

This project will research, develop and create a pilot implementation of an ‘energy bridge’ that can transport electricity from islands with poor grid connections to mainland ports with good grid connections. The ‘Energy Bridge’ project will not use cables but instead will use ships – conventional bulk carriers or tankers carrying bulk energy storage materials (BESM).

Project summary

In phase 1, the project will develop innovative BESMs that are charged by electricity at an island port, transported in conventional ship holds and later discharged at a mainland port of destination.

Phase 1 will complete a feasibility studies to design, cost and plan a phase 2 pilot supporting export from a single 3MW wind turbine – a 100^th scale demonstrator for a 100 turbine island wind farm.