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A trio of battery site acquisitions

  • United Kingdom
  • Global

    12-01-2021

    Eversheds Sutherland advises Gresham House on three different battery storage projects

    Eversheds Sutherland has advised Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC (the Fund) on the acquisition of three utility-scale battery storage projects.

    A cross-practice team from Eversheds Sutherland provided energy corporate, regulatory, construction, real estate and planning advice as the Fund boosts the battery storage capacity of its portfolio.

    The Fund acquired Wickham Market and Tynemouth, and agreed to acquire Byers Brae which is expected to be commissioned in Q2 2021. The three sites will add a collective operational capacity of 105MW to the Fund’s battery storage portfolio, which alongside 11 other projects, will see a portfolio capacity of 380MW.

    Eversheds Sutherland’s team supported the Fund as it acquired three sites across the UK, over a five week period:

    • the Tynemouth site, acquired on 8 January 2021 from Enel Global Thermal Generation s.r.l., is a 25MW battery project located in North Shields, Tyne and Wear.
    • Byers Brae, in West Lothian, Scotland, is a c.30MW project and was conditionally acquired by the Fund on 24 December 2020 from Gresham House DevCo Limited and Noriker Power Ltd, the developers of the project.
    • the 50MW Wickham site, in Wickham Market, Suffolk, was acquired by the Fund on 27 November 2020 from Gresham House Devco Limited and Noriker Power Ltd.

    As part of advising on the acquisitions, the Eversheds Sutherland team provided support to Gresham House on structuring the optimisation and revenue arrangements and negotiated unique EPC arrangements with Metka-EGN Limited for both the Wickham Market and Byers Brae projects.  

    The acquisitions follow the Fund’s recent further fundraising of £120m to finance energy storage projects. Eversheds Sutherland has provided legal support to the Fund across all aspects of the portfolio since the £100m Initial Public Offering of the Gresham House Energy Storage Fund in November 2018.

    Caroline Clapham, Partner, Corporate and Energy from Eversheds Sutherland, commented:

    “I am delighted that Gresham House closed out these transactions in rapid succession so soon after its recent fundraising. With constraints on the UK’s energy system, the need for energy storage is critical and we are pleased to support the Gresham House team in leading the way in this sector. Energy storage is a rapidly developing area and no two projects are the same; it is therefore a credit to the team’s experience and the depth of our expertise that we could advise on the three acquisitions over a short time scale. We look forward to working alongside Gresham House on further transactions in the future.”

    Ben Guest, Fund Manager of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc, said:

    “We are delighted to have achieved these recent significant milestones.  We have observed with great interest the recent wholesale power price short term spikes to above £1,000 per MWh. This has highlighted only too well the urgent need for more energy storage capacity in the UK.  We are moving swiftly to deploy the £120 million we raised in November into our near-term pipeline and look forward to updating shareholders on our continued progress.”

    Eversheds Sutherland’s team was led by Caroline Clapham. She was supported by: Rob McNabb, Partner, Construction Litigation; Karen Mutton, Legal Director, Planning; Kate Shannon, Principal Associate, Finance; Miriam Bowder, Senior Associate, Construction Litigation; Sacha Bacco, Senior Associate, Construction Litigation; Adam Weatherley, Senior Associate, Real Estate; Christine Barnsley, Senior Associate, Real Estate; Ben Brown, Senior Associate, Regulatory, Jack Gladman, Associate, Corporate; Julie Chemla, Associate, Corporate; and Roshni Hirani, Associate, Construction Litigation.

    Caroline Clapham, Partner

    This information is for guidance purposes only and should not be regarded as a substitute for taking legal advice. Please refer to the full terms and conditions on our website.

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