BESS owner-operator BW ESS has partnered with Associated British Ports (ABP) Southampton to build a grid-scale project on a brownfield site.
The battery energy storage system (BESS) will be built on a seven-hectare site at Marchwood Industrial Park following planning approval by New Forest District Council.
The buildings at the Marchwood Industrial Park have reached the end of their economic life and no longer meet modern energy efficiency or sustainability standards, ABP said.
BW ESS and ABP will enter into a long-term lease for the project, which is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2028. The site is located near the Marchwood National Grid Substation, allowing grid connection with minimal disruption to the surrounding area, ABP said.
The port operator did not reveal the capacity of the project in its announcement, but BW ESS has a project page for an onshore project in the Marchwood Industrial Park, with a capacity of 200 MW/500 MWh, with a duration of 2.5 hours.
BW ESS is a global BESS owner-operator that is part of the shipping and energy company BW Group. BW ESS is mainly active in Great Britain, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Australia. In the UK the flagship project is the 100MW/331MWh Bramley BESS, activated in February this yearand it is also developing the larger 350 MW/1,750 MWh Hams Hall BESS in North Warwickshire, England. The company recently sold a 49% stake in its 2.4 GWh UK portfolio to Denmark-based investor AIP Management.
Britain almost has 8GW/12GWh BESS at operational grid scale and another approximately 20GWh under constructionaccording to our internal Solar Media Market Research data. Implementation is driven by opportunities in ancillary services, the balancing mechanism (BM), network-building services and trading opportunities in the wholesale energy market. The government wants to have 27 GW of short-term BESS online by 2030.
