FEVER project exhibits at Solar & Storage Live 2025
Part of the FEVER team attended the Solar & Storage Live exhibition at Birmingham’s NEC from the 22nd to the 24th of September. This major event provided an excellent opportunity to present the progress of the FEVER research project to experts in solar and energy storage from around the world.
Solar & Storage Exhibition 2025, Birmingham
A consistent topic of discussion at our stand was the significant difficulty many developers face when seeking to upgrade grid connection capacity. The process is often very expensive and can take anywhere from months to years to complete. This considerable backlog for grid connections was a key point of interest for nearly all our visitors. Our conversations strongly highlighted the essential need for off-grid solutions. In remote and rural areas across the UK, there is a clear demand for resilient off-grid power systems to manage power cuts and reduce reliance on diesel generators.
The exhibition also brought into focus critical challenges within the wider EV charging sector. During an insightful session, members of the FEVER team noted the large disparity in grid connection costs for new EV charging installations across different locations in the UK. This geographical difference in cost directs investment toward areas where connection is cheapest, which exacerbates inequality in the national rollout of charging points.
The FEVER project focuses on developing off-grid EV charging infrastructure using renewable generation and hybrid energy storage systems. This technology offers a viable solution for locations with limited or no capacity for grid upgrades. We successfully installed our pilot plant at the University of Southampton last year, and we are on schedule to install our next two demonstrators soon:
· NHS Hospital, Yorkshire and the Humber: This demonstrator will use a renewable and hybrid energy storage system to power 7 kW and 40 kW chargers. It will support hospital staff use and occasionally the ambulance fleet.
· Logistics Distribution Centre, Northampton: This site will install 7 kW chargers powered by a renewable and hybrid energy storage system, serving as a workplace charging facility for staff top-ups.
Please keep checking our website and LinkedIn pages for future updates on these two along with plans for two further demonstrators!
Prof Andy Cruden, Dr Maria Nunez and Prof Dave Stone @ Solar & Storage 2025
It was valuable to connect with fellow researchers, industry leaders, and individuals passionate about the transition to a cleaner energy future. Sharing our project goals and findings, and learning about other groundbreaking work in EV charging, renewables, and storage, was extremely productive.
We appreciate the interest shown in our work at Solar & Storage Live 2025 and look forward to progressing our research into off-grid EV charging technology. Please stay tuned to the FEVER website for more updates on our research and future events.