BW ESS and Sungrow have announced the start of commercial operations of the Bramley Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), a 100MW/331MWh project located in the south of England.
Sungrow supplied the battery units for the project, delivering the firm’s 3-hour duration PowerTitan 2.0. Sungrow has made deals with other developers to supply them with these PowerTitan 2.0 units, including for Fidra Energy’s 1.4GW Thorpe Marsh BESS and 500MW West Burton C BESS. The Thorpe Marsh BESS was recently granted planning permission by Doncaster Council, and sits on the site of a former coal power station.
Furthermore, this project is not the first time Sungrow and BW ESS have worked together, as the two firms were part of a supply agreement for the Hams Hall energy storage project in North Warwickshire, England, a 350MW/1,750MWh BESS project by Penso Power and Luminous Energy and funded by BW ESS.
“This is a landmark moment for BW ESS’ UK rollout and a notable project in the context of the UK’s energy transition,” said Erik Strømsø, CEO of BW ESS. “Bramley is a state-of-the-art, pioneering project aligned with our mission to unlock the value of energy storage.”
Shawn Shi, president of Sungrow Europe, added: “We are proud to partner with BW ESS on this groundbreaking project. The Bramley BESS exemplifies our commitment to advancing clean energy solutions that not only support grid stability but also contribute to a more resilient and sustainable energy future.”
Ahead of developing this project, Sungrow conducted what it claimed was the world’s largest real-world fire test of BESS units. As reported by our sister site Energy Storage News, Sungrow set four 5MWh battery storage units using its PowerTitan 2.0 system alight, by triggering a thermal runaway event on the fully-charged units. Despite each unit burning for over a full day, no spreading of fire between units took place.
Last autumn, BW ESS announced that it had merged with UK firm Penso Power, having previously collaborated on a number of deals together. Before this deal, BW ESS was already the major stakeholder in Penso Power, and the merger saw BW ESS acquire the remaining shares in the company. The combined pipeline of both BW ESS’s existing projects and the acquired Penso Power pipeline totals around 5GW, spread across the UK, Sweden and Australia.
