Environmental infrastructure fund JLEN has secured the development rights for a planned battery storage plant in Melksham in Wiltshire.
FTSE 250 listed JLEN announced it has acquired a 50% equity stake in Gloucestershire company Sandridge Battery Storage, which holds the development rights to construct the Sandridge Battery Storage project.
JLEN will invest up to £12.7m in the scheme, which the company said is fully consented and construction ready, over the next 12-18 months.
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The 50MW lithium-ion battery energy storage plant will be connected to Southern Electric Power Distribution plc’s distribution network.
It is expected to reach energisation and start commercial operations in October 2022.
JLEN chairman Richard Morse said: “We believe that assets such as these will provide a vital balancing mechanism to the grid that will aid in the rollout of intermittently generating renewable energy systems and play an important role in the decarbonisation agenda of the national grid.”
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JLEN’s investment into the Melksham plant, which has been made alongside Foresight Solar Fund Limited, represents the fourth asset to be added to its portfolio of battery energy storage systems and its second grid-scale battery project.
The company owns two co-located batteries as part of its run-of-river hydro portfolio, as well as the standalone West Gourdie project in Scotland, which was acquired in March 2021.