Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has, through its flagship fund CI IV, taken a financial investment decision and issued Notice to Proceed to commence construction of two further battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Scotland.
Coalburn 2 is situated in South Lanarkshire, adjacent to CIP’s existing Coalburn 1 BESS project, and Devilla is situated in Fife, near the town of Kincardine. Each project is sized at 500 MW and, once commissioned, will be the largest battery storage projects in Europe.
These two projects represent an investment of approximately £800 million, they expand CIP’s UK BESS construction portfolio from one to three projects,and make CIP the largest battery storage investor in the United Kingdom.
The CIP BESS portfolio (Coalburn 1, Coalburn 2, and Devilla) will have total power capacity of 1.5 GW and will be able to store and supply the grid with a total of 3 GWh of electricity across a 2-hour period.
In February 2022, CIP’s CI IV fund entered a partnership with Alcemi, a large-scale BESS developer, to develop a UK wide portfolio of BESS projects to FID. CIP’s FID for Coalburn 2 and Devilla comes approximately one year after an equivalent decision for Coalburn 1. Battery technology provider e-STORAGE, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar and a Tier 1 global energy storage solutions provider, will supply all three projects. H&MV Engineering and the OCU Group have been contracted to supply Balance of Plant and electrical engineering services for Coalburn 2 and Devilla respectively. Wood Group is providing construction management services for both Coalburn 2 and Devilla sites.
Founded in 2012, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is the world’s largest dedicated fund manager within greenfield renewable energy investments, and is a prominent global presence in offshore wind. In the UK, CIP is investing in over 30 GW of renewable energy infrastructure, representing over £15 bn of future investment potential. It manages 12 funds and has to date raised approximately €31 billion for investments in energy and associated infrastructure from more than 180 international institutional investors.
