Acquisitions boost battery storage firm
A renewable energy infrastructure company has snapped up two Scottish energy storage systems to boost its own capacity but also help lower bills.
Field has acquired Holmston and Drum Farm, located in Ayr and Keith respectively and with a combined capacity of 100 megawatts (MW)/200 MW hours, from Res, which says it is the world’s largest independent renewable energy company, and whose office network includes Glasgow. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Additionally, Field says both assets, once operational, will contribute a range of services to the grid, including balancing electricity supply and demand, contributing to the UK’S efforts to decarbonise power supply, and bolstering the latter’s security by helping use more renewable energy.
The business, which also supports Highland Renewables, hailed Scotland as the UK’S largest renewables-producing country, but said it currently lacks the transmission networkinfrastructurerequiredto transport surplus green power to areas of demand. “Building more batteries to store excess suppliescanconnectelectricity generated by renewables with consumers more efficiently,” it explained.
Field says Holmston and Drum Farm will help plug this gap, and it cited a report from Carbon Tracker showing that Britain wasted enough wind generation last year to power a million homes because of congestion and lack of flexibility in the grid, “something that battery storage will help to solve, ultimately helping to lower energy bills and increase energy security”.
The firm, whose first battery storage site, in Oldham (20MWH), started operating in 2022, plans to bring a further 410MWH of battery sites online over the next two years including this acquisition, and has more than 4.5 gigawatt hours of projects in development or in exclusivity with partners.
Katie Marsh, head of corporate development at Field said: “With vital grid reforms picking up pace, we will start to see more storage projects connected to the network to support the transition to a net-zero electricity system. Energy storage is an essential part of thispicture,especially in Scotland where so much cheaper, cleaner energy-generation is curtailed each year. To achieve net-zero emissions in Scotland by 2045, we must invest in battery storage as part of the biggest transformationofinfrastructureever seen.”
Rebecca Meek, development director, energy storage, for the UK and Ireland at Res, said: “To ensureconsumersgetthemaximum benefit from the low-cost renewable energy being generatedintheuk,weneedtodeploy energystoragecapacity,atpace, across our country. Holmston anddrumfarmaregreatexamples of the dynamic energy sector we’re creating together to support our economy and the environment.”
Separately, there are plans for a vast battery storage project in West Lothian.