Investment firm the Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has committed to buy Bristol-based battery projects developer Fig Power for a total of £20 million.
The acquiree was formerly a sister company of Hydrock Consultants, TRIG told investors today. Its record in storage ventures swells TRIG’s pipeline of late-stage battery projects.
Fig Power has nine grid-scale projects in advanced development, totalling 400MW among its complete portfolio of 1.7GW. Its two-hour projects are expected to participate principally in the UK wholesale and balancing markets. They are not expected to depend for revenues on ancillary services, which Fig regards as shallower than the wholesale and balancing markets.
TRIG said its new unit may also consider development opportunities in solar PV.
Payment will be made over the next two years, during which Fig will raise funds by selling planning-approved projects yet to be constructed.
TRIG invests in wind, solar and storage projects across six European countries. Its portfolio’s net generating capacity is over 2.8GW.
InfraRed Capital Partners advised on the deal. Its head of energy income funds Richard Crawford said the Fig Power purchase built on four battery investments that TRIG had added at development-stage in 2022. Construction of the first began last month.
Also in storage investment, high-density fluid specialists RheEnergise has secured £335,000 in equity participation from the Low Carbon Innovation Fund.
The developer’s business model is to drop high-mass proprietary fluid down low-rise gradients to generate electricity at times of high demand.
RheEnergise’s grid-scale solution provides 4 to 16 hours of storage in the 10MW to 100MW power range. It says its offering is among the few longer term storage solutions which can be scaled rapidly and globally.
Besides the UK and Ireland, RheEnergise is investigating opportunities in north America, Chile and Australia, buoyed by a global LDES market forecast to be worth US$4trillion before the late 2030s.
Its CEO Stephen Crosher, pictured, said: “LCIF and the commitments from other investors underlines the exciting growth potential of our HD Hydro technology. Over the past 12 months, we have had customer interest in our work from over 30 countries”.
