- The UK Infrastructure Bank will provide more than £62m to support the development of energy solution technologies across England, Scotland and Wales in a bid to improve grid stability on the road to net-zero emissions.
- The Bank invested in seven deals worth £610m in its first year.
The UK Infrastructure Bank will provide more than £62m to support the development of energy solution technologies across England, Scotland and Wales in a bid to improve grid stability on the road to net-zero emissions. These figures published by RenewableUK in April last year confirmed that the UK’s energy storage pipeline had surpassed 32GW for the first time, doubling year-on-year. The Bank has agreed to a debt transaction worth £62.5m to support Pulse Clean Energy and its aim to invest more than £1bn in deploying more than 1GW of battery storage systems across 20 UK sites over the next three years.
Launched in the summer of 2021 to replace the European Investment Bank (EIB) role in the UK post-Brexit, the Bank invested in seven deals worth £610m in its first year. The new commitment will support a storage portfolio pipeline that will save around 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over the assets’ lifetime, equivalent to 28,500 homes over 15 years. The projects will also create 200 green jobs.
UK Infrastructure Bank’s chief executive John Flint said: “If we are to harness the power of renewables fully, we need to vastly increase our storage capacity – by as much as six times by 2030 alone, according to National Grid estimates. “Alongside the climate benefits, the integration of more low-carbon power technologies could save the UK energy system billions, which in turn will lead to lower energy bills for everyone.”
Figures published by RenewableUK in April last year confirmed that the UK’s energy storage pipeline had surpassed 32GW for the first time, doubling year-on-year. RenewableUK partly attributed a doubling of the pipeline year-on-year to a decision to relax planning rules, first announced in the summer of 2020 and enacted in December 2020.