Sumitomo aims to expand battery energy storage in Japan with UK experience

Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. is learning about the operation of battery energy storage system and how that relates to electricity trading in the English city of Leicester, located in the East Midlands. (Photo by Carla Messinger)

TOKYO/LEICESTER, England -- In the leafy outskirts of Leicester, a city in England's East Midlands, an unassuming piece of land houses 30 shipping containers. The long rows of boxes are filled with a combination of batteries and inverters, which have the capacity to store enough energy to power 160,000 homes for two hours.