Japanese conglomerate Marubeni has acquired a 25MW wind and energy storage project in Wales, UK, from developer RES.
The companies announced the deal late last month, which will see Marubeni take on the 25MW Upper Ogmore Wind Farm and energy storage project in South Wales, though they didn’t reveal when the project is expected to come online.
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The seven-turbine project was given planning approval by Welsh Ministers in September 2022 under the UK’s Developments of National Significance (DNS) planning process.
Although details of the energy storage system (ESS) such as capacity, technology, provider or use case have not been revealed, its size in MWh is likely to be close to the 25MW headline figure.
Documents for the project including a technical appendix and a site layout both say that eight shipping container-sized ESS units will be deployed, and containerised ESS units of that size typically have an energy storage capacity of a few MWh.
Furthermore, a document from Western Power Distribution showed the project had negligible import capacity in its grid connection approval, meaning it would most likely only be charging from the wind and then discharging to the grid when generation tails off.
John Boyce, Development Director for Wind in the UK&I, said: “We’re really pleased to partner with Marubeni to help deliver Upper Ogmore, a project that will produce clean, secure electricity for thousands of homes.”
“This month the world experienced its three hottest days on record and it is projects like Upper Ogmore that will deliver the practical solutions to climate change, while simultaneously creating cheap electricity and investing millions in the Welsh economy.”
Tomoki Nishino, president & CEO of Marubeni Europower, added: “Marubeni plans to sign an MoU with the UK government which envisages approximately £10 billion of investment in the UK with its partners over the next 10 years. This project would be one of the forefront projects to realise our ambition.”
RES, which claims to be the largest renewables developer in the world, has been active in Wales since the early 1990s and has developed five onshore wind farms in the country.
Marubeni has invested in various parts of the energy storage supply chain. Most recently, it announced a partnership with a local developer to build energy storage projects in Vietnam. In 2021, it invested in California-based second life energy storage firm B2U while in 2019 it invested in a US generated distribution company GridMarket.
