CIP takes final investment decision on 1,000MWh UK storage system

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) through its ‘flagship funds’ has taken final investment decision and begun construction on a 500 MW / 1,000 MWh energy storage system in Coalburn, Scotland.

The facility is the first project to be developed from the partnership between CIP and Alcemi to with a view to deploying 4 GW of energy storage assets across the UK. CIP aims to take final investment decisions on two other projects next year with a combined capacity of more than 1 GW.

The Coalburn 1 facility has been developed with “extensive landscaping and ecological mitigation measures, including the maintenance of peat reserves, tree and wildflower planting, and new habitats, promoting biodiversity across the site,” a CIP statement said.

Nischal Agarwal, partner at CIP, said: “Achieving final investment decision on one of the largest battery projects in Europe is a significant milestone for CIP. It demonstrates CIP’s industrial approach in identifying a market need and delivering a large-scale project with a robust contractual framework with high quality partners and counterparties. The integration of renewable energy into the energy system requires significant investment into storage solutions and we have a significant pipeline of storage projects across the world which we hope to build in the years ahead.”

Canadian Solar’s e-STORAGE will provide its proprietary energy storage solution, SolBank, for the project while H&MV Engineering will undertake the balance of plant works. SSE Energy Markets will provide the optimisation services for the project.