National Grid has said at least 13GW of storage will be needed by 2030. Image: Getty.

French investment management company RGREEN INVEST has made its first step into the UK market, investing in four greenfield battery storage plants

These have a combined capacity of 110MW, and have been purchased from Arlington Energy and funded by the INFRAGREEN IV fund, which had raised €670 million when it closed in June.

“This first venture in the UK energy storage market reinforces our internationalisation strategy,” said Nicolas Rochon, founder and CEO of RGREEN INVEST.

“RGREEN INVEST’s ambition is to become a recognised European player in this market. The choice of the United Kingdom is significant as the country has identified energy storage as a priority to accelerate its transition to renewable energy sources.”

National Grid has identified a minimum need for 13GW of battery energy storage in the UK by 2030, to facilitate the transition to net zero. According to recent research from Solar Media’s market research team, there is now a the pipeline of over 20GW of utility-scale battery storage projects across 800 projects.

The four new battery storage projects – located in Chesterfield, Rochdale, Plymouth and East Sussex – will be owned through INFRAGREEN IV’s dedicated IPP platform, and will be developed by Arlington Energy.

Since it was established in 2017, Arlington Energy has developed a portfolio of flexible energy assets, including announcing in 2018 plans to build out a 1GW portfolio of energy storage and gas peaker projects across the UK, after it secured initial funding of £200 million.

Construction will be managed by the UK company Battery Asset Management, a special vehicle established to manage construction and long-term operation RGREEN INVEST’s 110MW portfolio.

Talks are underway with several aggregators for the assets’ route to market, and several debt providers for funding. The sites are expected to be operational between Q1 2022 and Q3 2022.

For the acquisition, RGREEN INVEST and Battery Asset Management were supported by Smith Brothers as EPC contractor, IDCM as financial advisor, Osborne Clarke as legal advisor – while TLT advised Arlington – DNV GL as technical advisor and Baringa as market advisor.