Powering change: UK battery firms aim to unlock the way to net zero

Companies using different technologies for long-duration storage seek funding as country shifts to renewables and requires greater energy security

Think of battery manufacturing and it may evoke images of Elon Musk and Tesla's sprawling gigafactories" around the globe, or China's vast, hi-tech clean rooms churning out cells to go in anything from electric toothbrushes to mobile phones and cars. But at Invinity Energy Systems's small factory in Bathgate, near Edinburgh, workers slotting parts together are hoping that Britain can also play a part in the battery revolution.

These batteries, which rely on vanadium ions, are put in 6-metre (20ft), 25-tonne shipping containers. They will not go into cars, but the manufacturer hopes the technology can win a place in a global rush into storage to usher in the shift to net zero carbon grids.