ESB Scotland has signed letters of intent with American Energy Storage Innovations (AESI) concerning three battery energy storage system (BESS) projects currently in development.
At the RE+ clean energy conference in Anaheim, California, it was announced that AESI will provide 1.5GW worth of its TeraStor BESS units for the High Nether Faul Farm BESS project, and the Gretna and Harker Substations.
The High Nether Faul Farm project, located in Lanarkshire, Scotland, is the largest planned installation of the three, with plans to host 1GW/2GWh of BESS capacity in the form of 312 TeraStor units, with a planned commissioning date of Q4 2028.
Meanwhile, the Gretna Substation project involves the installation of 500MW/1GWh of BESS across 156 units, with a planned commissioning date of Q4 2030, while the Harker Substation Project, also set for commissioning in Q4 2030, will see the installation of 371MW/742MWh across 116 units.
The Harker Substation will form the future connection point of one of the UK’s largest BESS projects: the Harker BESS is currently in development by Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy and Northeast England-headquartered developer Windel Energy. It has an expected capacity of 200MW/400MWh and a 2-hour duration. Located near Carlisle, the Harker substation will be the point of connection between the project and the National Grid.
James Ewart, Managing Director of ESB, commented, “TeraStor is exactly what we need to meet our energy storage goals efficiently and reliably. The flexibility, ease of installation and impressive lead times make it the perfect fit for our projects. AESI’s solution not only saves us time but also ensures we maximize our capital investments. We’re excited to see these projects come to life.”
Bud Collins, CEO of AESI, added, “We are thrilled to partner with ESB on these landmark projects. TeraStor’s reliability, flexibility and cost-saving advantages make it easy for our customers to deploy a powerful BESS that optimizes their profitability from day one.”
Earlier this year, ESB was granted planning consent for a new wind-plus-storage project near Lairg in the Scottish Highlands. The Chleansaid Wind Farm project will combine around 96MW of wind power with a 20MW BESS, and is expected to begin construction in 2026 and be completed by 2027.
