The Minety battery storage project in Wiltshire – still under construction – is set to be expanded after developer Penso Power secured land rights, planning permission and a grid connection offer to extend the 100MW project by a further 50MW.
Work started on site on the first tranche in December 2019 and it is expected that Minety will enter operation in the autumn.
The additional 50MW capacity is to be built on adjacent land, and will enter operation in 2021.
Shell has signed an offtake agreement on the original 100MW project, the largest of its kind globally to date, whilst the batteries will be optimised and dispatched by Limejump (also a subsidiary of Shell).Penso Power is currently in discussions with potential offtakers regarding similar arrangements for the 50MW project extension. It says scale benefits enable the provision of a range of balancing services on a cost-effective basis.
Richard Thwaites, Penso Power chief executive, said: “Our focus on large projects means that we achieve scale benefits on both procurement and deployment costs, while the offtake structure helps us provide superior risk-adjusted returns to our investors.”
The initial 100MW development had:
- Investment from power generator China Huaneng Group, and CNIC, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund.
- Independent connection provider G2 Energy as principal designer and principal contractor.
- Sungrow as the integrator, providing battery storage systems using Samsung and CATL batteries.
- Eclipse Power Networks as the iDNO (the scheme will connect to the distribution network via the SSE / National Grid Minety substation).