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UK energy storage investment fund follows oversubscribed share offer with 50MW acquisition

By Alice Grundy
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Red Scar, another battery energy storage site acquired by Gresham House. Image: Gresham House.

UK-based stock exchange listed investor Gresham House Energy Storage Fund has conditionally agreed to acquire a 50MW battery storage project.

The project, which is located near Wickham Market in Suffolk, will take Gresham’s total capacity of operational utility-scale battery storage projects in its investment portfolio to 274MW. This includes the 50MW Thurcroft project, which was announced last month. Other projects in this portfolio range from 5MW (Wolverhampton) to 49MW (Red Scar).

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The Wickham site is expected to be commissioned over summer 2020, although the exact date of commissioning may be impacted by COVID-19 related restrictions, Gresham said.

It is a battery-only site with a 50MW/40MW export/import capacity, with revenue expected to be generated primarily from asset optimisation, whereby power is imported and exported to earn income from the wholesale market and the Balancing Mechanism. It is to be acquired from development duo Gresham House DevCo and Noriker Power.

Gresham also recently completed the acquisition of Red Scar, as well as a 40MW battery and 10MW battery from developer VLC Energy.

Last month, it raised £31.2 million (US$40.47 million) in an oversubscribed share placing, issuing 30 million shares at a Placing Price of 104 pence per share.

It is also targeting subsidy-free solar, making its first acquistion of a subsidy-free solar site from Anesco. The 12MW site was energised last week, with plans for battery storage to go in on the site.

John Leggate, chairman of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund, lauded the storage portfolio – which spans 10 counties – as the largest of its kind in the UK.

“The Gresham House New Energy team continues to deliver on our plans and we look forward to making further announcements as we continue to build out our portfolio,” Leggate added.

Solar Media Market Research analyst Lauren Cook recently highlighted that the total pipeline of battery storage projects in the UK has now reached over 13.5GW, made up of a diverse range of projects, including co-location with renewables, stand-alone and behind-the-meter. At the end of 2019, the market had reached a 900MW installed base. 

This article first appeared on our sister site Solar Power Portal

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