Green Investment Group launches offshore wind and energy storage push

Green Investment Group (GIG) has this week announced two major new moves to bolster its position in both the energy storage and offshore wind markets.

The green banking specialist, which is owned by Australian banking giant Macquarie, announced today that it has teamed up with TotalEnergies and Renewable Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG) to bid for sites in Scotland's forthcoming offshore wind leasing round.

The new consortium, dubbed Offshore Wind Power Ltd (OWPL), will look to build on the three companies existing presence in Scotland's fast-expanding renewables market. TotalEnergies boasts a majority stake in the 1,140MW Seagreen 1 offshore wind farm project located off the east coast of Scotland, which is currently under construction, while GIG has invested around £625m in the Scottish renewables sector since 2012, including through its previous incarnation as the government-backed Green Investment Bank.

The new consortium also builds on previous partnerships between GIG and TotalEnergies, which recently saw the firms successfully secure rights to a seabed lease in the Eastern Regions zone in the Crown Estate's England and Wales Offshore Wind Leasing Round 4 to develop a 1.5GW offshore wind project.

"The addition of TotalEnergies to our bidding consortium brings together a team who have a long track record in delivering major infrastructure projects in challenging environments - a key requirement given the growing scale and complexity of the next generation of fixed bottom and floating offshore wind farm projects," said Ed Northam, head of GIG Europe.

The news comes just days after GIG announced its first acquisition of a utility-scale battery storage portfolio in the UK following an agreement with Capbal Limited.

GIG said it has acquired the portfolio of development-stage utility-scale, distribution-connected battery storage projects in the UK and agreed a partnership with Capbal to deliver an initial 187MWh of late-stage development projects, before then growing the portfolio through the acquisition and development of additional projects.

The initial 187MWh portfolio contains seven projects strategically located in highly congested areas of the UK network, including Scotland and South East England. The projects are set to provide a range of grid services, including frequency response, and will participate in the Balancing Mechanism to help National Grid balance demand and supply in real time. Construction is expected to commence on the first projects this year, GIG said.

"Net-zero demands an overhaul of our entire energy systems - for us to fundamentally rethink not just how we generate energy, but how we get it where we need it, when we need it," said Northam. "Our success in creating a flexible, low-carbon energy system is inextricably linked to our success in delivering energy storage at scale. GIG's partnership with Capbal is an exciting first step for us in this market, and we look forward to creating even more opportunities to accelerate the deployment of this critical technology."

David Fyffe, founder and managing director of Capbal, said the deal provided further evidence that "battery storage's time has come". "Net zero by 2050 will require a massive clean energy expansion during the 2020s," he said. "Battery storage is key enabling technology, adding essential flexibility and intelligence to a grid under increasing stress due to the rapid growth in intermittent renewables. Although it has taken time for the battery storage sector to mature, scale and speed to market are now vital and GIG is the ideal partner to deliver our initial portfolio of attractive, grid scale projects and more."