China-based battery cell OEM CATL and UK energy storage investor Gresham House have entered into a long-term agreement for the supply of 7.5GWh of BESS, potentially rising to 10GWh.
The companies announced the agreement today, 22 December, which was scant on details but will see CATL supply 7.5GWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) to Gresham House. Both parties will endeavour to increase that to 10GWh, the announcement added.
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CATL, full name Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, is the largest lithium-ion battery cell manufacturer in the world but has recently been expanding its fully-containerised BESS product division.
In September, the company signed a similar deal with another major energy storage company, US-based system integrator FlexGen, to supply 10GWh of its EnerC containerised liquid cooled BESS product. The product comes with IP55 and C5 anti-corrosion protection, can fit up to 259.7kWh of battery storage into a square metre footprint and has a 20-year warranty.
CATL will also supply the entire 1.4GWh battery storage portion of the Gemini solar-plus-storage project in Nevada with EnerC units, with system integrator IHI Terrasun putting the project together.
The Ningde-headquartered firm has also been expanding its global manufacturing capacity. Just this week, it announced the start of cell production at its Germany plant, the first in Europe. As Energy-Storage.news reported a few months ago whilst reporting on delays to gigafactory projects on the continent, it is also planning a second in Hungary.
It is also currently assessing locations for a gigafactory in Mexico, which would be the first substantial facility producing lithium-ion cells for the general market in the whole of Latin America.
Gresham House through its Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc, meanwhile, continues to expand its presence in the UK battery storage market. It October, it reported a 53.5% increase in net asset value (NAV) to £785 million (US$880 million) and expects to reach a total operational capacity of 1GW/1.2GWh by the first quarter of 2023.
The UK currently has 2.35GW of battery storage online according to figures from Solar Media Market Research’s UK Battery Storage Project Database Report.
Gresham House has not yet expanded out of the UK/Ireland market to-date but considering the size of the agreement, this now seems likely. Energy-Storage.news has reached out to the investor for clarification on that point.
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