Glen Dimplex-led consortium wins EU backing for project

A consortium led by Irish electrical goods firm Glen Dimplex has secured €12 million in funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 programme – the single largest award to date – for a renewable energy project.

The 12-member RealValue consortium, which includes several big European energy companies, received the funding to pilot Glen Dimplex’s new Quantum energy storage system, widely acknowledged as a game-changer in the energy storage industry.

The technology works by storing excess energy generated by wind farms at off-peak times and then releasing it as heat when required.

As part of the project, the consortium will install Glen Dimplex's system into 1250 homes, 850 of which will be in the Republic, 150 in Northern Ireland, with the remainder in Germany and Latvia.

The technology was developed by Glen Dimplex in collaboration with SSE Airtricity, ESB, EirGrid, Intel Ireland and researchers from University College Dublin, and has been tested on 150 houses in Mulhuddart, north Dublin.

The project will cost €15 million, with €12 million coming from Horizon 2020 and €3 million funded via the partners and other resources.

Glen Dimplex chief executive Seán O’Driscoll said testing the technology on a large scale would accelerate innovation. “It is the first large testing of this new model for renewable energy storage and will be instrumental in developing business models to quantify the potential of small scale storage moving forward.”