Following the government’s pledge for a clean-energy revolution aimed at powering every UK home by wind within 10 years, Aggreko reports a reflective increase in the need for more ’bridging gap’ solutions to optimise the sector’s potential. 
Chris Rason, managing director, Aggreko Northern Europe says: “Building back greener is an ethos synonymous with Aggreko’s own strategy. However, while the strategy itself is most welcome news, there are many engineering challenges that we may yet encounter.
“To truly become a world leader in clean wind energy, long-term planning requirements cannot be overstated. Integration of renewable energy with the grid with its associated storage issues needs to be urgently addressed and planned and we believe ‘bridging gap’ solutions are critical to this.
“At Aggreko we have already been evolving our position and capability to become an enabler to meet decarbonisation goals, with a major focus on how we support renewable adoption and reliability.
“While we took the decision earlier in the lockdown period to defer our strategic update until the year end, we have continued to develop our thinking in order to position the business to support our customers when decarbonising their energy usage.
“We are investing significantly in many new technologies including battery storage, although industry is yet to take full advantage of its on-site capabilities.
“While battery technology is no new concept, it is still prohibitively costly for many companies to purchase on an industrial scale. However, despite common perceptions it is now more accessible now than it was three years ago due to progression in the rental space.
“Moreover, it’s how battery storage is applied and integrated within modern energy systems that will enable a real step change for industry. For example, we are also already supporting a number of onshore wind farms with hybrid solutions enabling more flexibility, reliability and revenue for users. And in terms of the broader renewables remit, we are involved in a number of major thermal-solar-battery hybrid projects across the world, including the development of a high profile microgrid at a Granny Smith mine in Australia. These are all areas where we are aiding carbon emission reduction and applying learnings to the UK market.
“We identified early on that a robust rental proposition is what’s needed to overcome investment barriers in new technologies, as well the speed required by wind farm developers to meet deadlines and qualify for maximum tax credits. We are pleased to see that this is now being reinforced by Government.”
