Elgar Middleton is delighted to have advised Field on the financing of the construction of a battery storage portfolio located in the UK
Field has secured a £46m loan from Triple Point Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Company (“TEEC”). This loan will finance the construction of an initial portfolio of four battery storage projects located in England, Scotland, and Wales. The first project has started construction and is expected to become operational this year, with the remaining three projects expected to start operations over the course of 2023.
This long-term financing with a c.19 year tenor will be drawn down over the course of the current financial year. The financing also includes a tailored ESG margin ratchet, with a discount being applied for success against a number of ESG KPIs. In addition to this margin ratchet, the loan features other innovative terms and structuring including an accordion facility to fund the build-out of at least an additional 500MWh of battery storage assets.
Field’s ambition is to respond to the global net zero challenge by installing 1.3GW of battery storage assets by 2024. This ambition is aligned with the increasing need for flexibility assets that need to be installed to accommodate the development of carbon-free but intermittent energy generators.
The commitment made by the UK government for cleaner energy is targeting that 100% of the electricity generated in the UK by 2035 should come from low carbon sources. To reach this ambitious target, the rollout of renewable energy will not only have to keep a good pace, but it will have to accelerate. According to analysis from GlobalData [1], the UK’s renewable power capacity should reach more than 110GW in 2030 while in 2020 this capacity was around 47GW – it is a 134% increase in 10 years.
This significant development of renewable energy will trigger a need for more flexibility assets to manage the intermittency. According to Aurora [2] , the UK will need to have installed 46GW of energy storage by 2035, with c.22GW likely to be battery storage (with a duration between 0 and 4 hours). As of March 2022, the total installed capacity of energy storage in the UK was 1.7GW [3], meaning that, based on Aurora’s analysis, this capacity would need to be multiplied by more than 20 over the next 13 years.
Elgar Middleton continues to support Field on its innovative battery storage portfolio. This deal is another example of Elgar Middleton’s market-leading work advising in the battery storage sector, demonstrating its ability to structure and source innovative ways of financing this technology. The UK will need a significant increase in its battery storage capacity over the coming years and Elgar Middleton is uniquely placed to help shape its growth.
Footnotes
[1] https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/news/uk-renewable-energy-capacity-2030/
[2] https://auroraer.com/insight/long-duration-electricity-storage-in-gb-2/
[3] https://www.energy-storage.news/the-numbers-behind-the-record-breaking-rise-of-the-uk-battery-storage-market/#:~:text=The%20UK%20installed%20446%20MW,storage%20sites%20has%20also%20increased