Giant battery storage project secures site near Bristol

A new 33MW battery storage facility is set to be built near Bristol after a lease was signed this month between land investor Electric Land and Hallen Energy, part of renewable energy firm Voltalia SA.

Voltalia has 1.2GW of solar and wind power already in operation or construction, and a pipeline of 7.8GW, the firm said. But the new project, which will be built at Avonmouth, marks the French Firm's first battery storage venture in the UK.

It will bring another significant battery storage project to the Bristol area, joining the 15MW Lockleaze project, which was thought to be the UK's largest stand-alone battery storage facility when it was built in 2017.

Electric Land is part of the London-based fund management business Foundation Property & Capital Group. Foundation Property's managing director, Ben Lansman, said the project woyuld advance the firm's broader move into the energy sector.

"Since the launch of our first House fund in 2011, we have focused on niches where we can use our rare expertise in managing small, complex projects to generate a secure income return whilst focusing on creating significant capital value. Initially that was primarily from convenience retailing, but for the last five years it has also and increasingly been from energy infrastructure," Lansman said.

Voltalia's new project joins a growing array of battery storage projects in the UK. Nearly 300MW of utility scale battery storage were deployed in 2019, bringing cumulative installations to over 900MW at the end of last year, according to the latest report from the UK Battery Storage Project, which placed the total pipeline of battery storage projects at 13.5GW.

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• Topics
• Energy
• Infrastructure
• flexible energy
• Voltalia SA
• Bristol
• Battery Storage
• Batteries