British solar and energy storage investor Bluefield Solar Income Fund has acquired two 40MW battery storage systems for £4.5 million ($5.7 million).
Bluefield Solar has acquired the development, grid connection and lease rights for these two independently deployed battery energy storage projects from UK energy storage developer Green Hedge Energy UK.
The two battery storage systems will be deployed in Derbyshire and Worcestershire in the UK this year. In a recent announcement, Bluefield Solar said the grid connection applications for both battery storage systems have been approved and are benefiting from the recent grid connection.
Bluefield Solar was founded in 2013, but only got into the energy storage space last year. According to industry media reports, the company first acquired a co-located energy storage system in Lincolnshire in August this year, followed by the completion of a 20MW independent energy storage project in Liverpool in February this year.
All three of Bluefield Solar's energy storage deals are acquisitions of project rights and will begin construction in 2022. Bluefield Solar bought it from Shaw-Energi in February for £75,000/MW, and is currently trading at a slightly lower price of £56,250/MW.
Speaking at the Energy Storage Summit 2022, hosted by Solar Media in London in February, Bluefield's investment director Jan Libicek said that while co-location is always good for capital expenditure savings, users are increasingly focusing on standalone deployments energy storage system.
The share of co-location deployments in the UK energy storage market will increase over time. Of the 38GW of storage systems planned for deployment in the UK, less than 10% are deployed in conjunction with wind or solar power facilities.
