A 100MW UK energy storage site being developed in England by Penso Power looks set to get a 50MW expansion.
The initial 100MW, announced in February 2020, consists of two 50MW ternary lithium batteries and is located in Wiltshire, in south-west England.
Penso Power has now secured land rights, planning permission and a grid connection offer to extend the site by a further 50MW.
Work started onsite in December 2019, with the first 100MW of the project set to enter operation in autumn 2020. The additional capacity is to be built on adjacent land and will enter operation in 2021.
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Shell Energy Europe signed a multi-year power offtake deal for the first 100MW, with the Shell-owned energy tech firm Limejump to optimise the batteries, although Penso is currently in discussions with potential offtakers for the additional 50MW.
The offtake structure de-risks the returns for infrastructure investors, Penso said, whilst also accessing deep and liquid markets to enable the deployment of battery storage at a “very large scale”.
The initial 100MW saw investment from China Huaneng Group and Chinese government-backed fund CNIC, with G2 Energy appointed principle designer and principle contractor. Sungrow is the integrator providing the battery storage systems using Samsung and CATL batteries.
Eclipse Power Networks is the iDNO, with the site to connect to the distribution network via the SSE/National Grid Minety substation.
Richard Thwaites, CEO of Penso Power, described Minety as a “landmark project” due to its size, “dwarfing other battery developments in scale and ambition”.
“Our focus on large projects means that we achieve scale benefits on both procurement and deployment costs, while the offtake structure helps us provide superior risk-adjusted returns to our investors,” Thwaites added.
This article first appeared on our sister site Current±.
