Amber Infrastructure has reached commercial close on the development for a new 50MW/100 megawatt hour utility-scale battery energy storage project in Skelmersdale. The project will deploy Megapack, Tesla’s large-scale lithium-ion battery technology, and is expected to be operational before the end of 2022.
Amber Infrastructure have managed the project development and funding for the proposal, including the arrangement of a bespoke co-investment. They will also be responsible for the asset management of the battery, leveraging its sustainable energy team’s experience in owning and operating investments in UK energy infrastructure. Meanwhile the battery will be optimised by Tesla’s autonomous trading platform Autobidder, which will enable the asset to play into a number of grid balancing services.
Amber Infrastructure chairman Giles Frost said:
“We are pleased to begin construction on this significant new battery project in collaboration with Tesla. The project is well timed and well located to support the ongoing changes in the UK’s energy mix.”
Amber Infrastructure and Tesla are also expecting to bring forward similar projects, targeting an additional 200MW/400MW.
The UK now has a pipeline of more than 14GW of battery projects at various stages of development and more than 1.2GW of lithium-ion battery storage online.