The largest battery storage project in Europe has been officially unveiled today in the U.K. town of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, near London.

The fully automated Smarter Network Storage (SNS) project is a 6 MW/10 MWh battery substation that has been officially unveiled by the U.K. governments Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Climate Change, Amber Rudd.

The SNS is the result of a collaboration between Berlin-based software architects Younicos, Samsung SDI, U.K. Power Networks (UKPN) and utility S&C Electric Europe, which acted as lead supplier on the £18.7 million ($29.3 million) project having accrued extensive energy storage experience on a number of other U.K. and global projects.

The project is a two-year energy storage trial that the collaborators hope will pave the way for greater integration of renewable energies into the U.K. grid and save as much as £6 million ($9.4 million) on traditional network reinforcement methods.

Speaking at the official switch-on of the system, Rudd remarked: "Cutting-edge smart networks like this will both enhance U.K. skills and allow us to capture and store new forms of energy generation.

"This [project] will help us to build a smart grid, which reduces the need for further costly investment in grid reinforcement by enabling greater integration of cleaner renewable energy sources into our existing energy network."