The batteries powering the Greener Game

As part of the Greener Game – an ongoing collaborative partnership between the Football Association and E.ON - we’re proud to have been helping England Football accredited grassroots football clubs across the country to help lower their bills and carbon emissions by offering them energy audits, energy support packs, and clubhouse upgrades. 

For clubs piloting the programme, our E.On Next Greener Game team have found while auditing that battery storage could make a big difference to overall energy efficiency, and this presents a great opportunity. Paired with the solar PV systems many of these clubs are installing, a battery gives them a means of storing their own clean, self-generated electricity to use at times when the sun isn’t shining. And as smart meters and Time-of-Use Tariffs become increasingly available, batteries could also allow them to buy off-peak electricity when it’s cheapest for use when market rates are higher. At the scale of a single household, this could save around £300 a month, but for a grassroots football club with greater energy needs the savings could be significantly more. 

Batteries will play a significant role in the Greener Game, and in the energy transition as a whole, so here we take a closer look at the devices we’re installing. 

Bringing batteries to Moulton Football Club 

One of the locations we’ve helped through the Greener Game is Northampton's Moulton Football Club, which, like all grassroots clubs, plays an important role in supporting the local community through sport. 

Our recommendations for Moulton included two 5.8kWh Solax batteries, each with a charging capacity of 99%, a max power of 4kW, and a lifespan of more than 6,000 charge cycles. 

The roughly 10kWh of self-generated solar or off-peak electricity these batteries are capable of storing could be used to power floodlights, heating systems, fridges for the bar, and all the other necessities of a working grassroots football club at a potentially lower cost than is currently available, all while giving the club and its users greater flexibility in their energy use. As time-of-use tariffs ramp up in the coming year, Moulton Football Club could even become a ‘Flexsumer’ - selling some of its stored electricity to generate additional revenue. 

With The FA’s help, we plan to bring many more batteries to grassroots clubs across the country in the coming months and years, just like we’re bringing them to homes through projects like our battery pilot in Coventry, and helping to install them at an industrial scale as with the two 230-megawatt long-duration battery storage facilities we’re investing in at the site of the former Uskmouth coal-fired power station in Newport, South Wales. 

Batteries will be an invaluable part of the UK’s journey to net zero, and whether it’s in homes, industrial sites, or grassroots football clubs, we’re committed to putting them where they need to be, because it’s on us to make new energy work. 

To find our more about our pioneering work with The F.A. as part of the Greener Game visit here.