Mr. Frank Burke:

There are new types of batteries in development. Some semi-commercial light-flow batteries are available. The advantage of a flow battery is that the energy is stored in the liquid that flows so that if one wants longer duration, one just needs to put in more liquid. The plates and so on give the megawatts but the liquid gives the megawatt hours. We will see that sort of technology widely commercially available. The longer the duration of the battery, the more competitive it is.

There are also things such as liquid air energy storage. One of the advantages of liquid air energy storage is that the generators are synchronous and provide inertia and so on as well.

One of things we need to think about is whether we need more pump storage. The capital cost of pump storage is enormous but it is almost like an insurance policy because we would no longer be concerned about the supply chain for batteries and battery parts. It will mean a lifetime of 40 years. Turlough Hill has been around a long time. It had a half-life refurbishment approximately ten years ago and it will go for another 30 or 40 years. One of the strategic things the country should consider is whether there are things with very high capital costs that we should be putting in for the long term. If we decide to do so, we must also consider how to fund those projects because they cannot be funded on a six-year contract. There is a strategic issue there to be considered.