Funding round enables build of “stability island” which will deliver crucial grid stability services; represents phase one of LDES facility at Hunterston
Energy storage pioneer Highview has secured £130m in funding to begin work on a planned 3.2GWh hybrid long-duration energy storage (LDES) solution to improve grid resilience across southwest Scotland.
The latest investment round includes £45m from the Bank, as well as funding from British multinational energy and services company Centrica and investors including Goldman Sachs, KIRKBI, and Mosaic Capital.
The funding will support the first of two development phases for a new energy storage facility, strategically located at Hunterston in North Ayrshire, to address grid intermittency and wind energy curtailment.
Phase one includes the development of Highview’s stability island, which will provide system support to the electricity grid and can operate independently of the energy storage elements to deliver critical inertia, short circuit and voltage support. These services will be vital for southwestern Scotland where they are currently lacking, and as a greater proportion of renewable energy sources enter the power mix. In turn, this will enable more power to be transmitted from the point of generation in Scotland to areas of high demand.
Phase two of the facility will incorporate a hybrid LDES system, combining both liquid air energy storage and lithium-ion batteries for greater operational performance. This means that the entire facility will be able to send more power to the grid for longer, in a flexible way, to maximise the asset for the benefit of the system operator. It will also incorporate a cutting-edge grid analytics function that delivers unprecedented insight into current and future energy usage and grid activity.
The Bank’s investment in the project sits within its wider missions to support Scotland’s net-zero transition across the renewable energy supply chain and transform places in an inclusive way that supports local job growth. The site, which is located at Peel Ports at Hunterston, is expected to support 1,000 onsite jobs during construction and 650 jobs in the supply chain during the build-out of all phases, with the stability island set to be complete and operational by January 2028, followed by the full facility which is expected to be operational by 2030.
Richard Butland, Chief Executive at Highview, commented, “This capital raise is an important milestone for Highview, enabling us to build out the first phase of our long duration energy facility at Hunterston. By delivering much-needed grid services in this location, our stability island asset will prevent costly curtailment and maximise the renewable energy that we generate in the UK.
“Through the delivery of this phase and building on the lessons learned at our Carrington facility, we are also developing and strengthening our UK supply chain. This is turn supports future Highview projects, as well as the UK’s wider green economy, driving skills development, job creation, and economic growth across the country.”
Mark Munro, Chief Investment Officer at the Scottish National Investment Bank, said:
“Curtailment and intermittency remain significant challenges as Scotland continues to scale up renewable energy generation. Strengthening grid resilience is critical to ensuring that more of the clean energy we produce can be efficiently utilised.
“By partnering with Highview, our investment in this pioneering project will help deliver the infrastructure needed to support a more stable, secure, and sustainable energy future for Scotland.”
The energy storage component of the Hunterston facility, along with another planned facility in Lincolnshire, recently received significant validation – confirmed as eligible projects for Ofgem’s Cap and Floor support scheme for LDES. Being awarded a cap and floor ensures a stable financial framework by guaranteeing a minimum level of revenue to projects to mitigate downside risk while sharing excess revenues with consumers.
In total, more than £500m has been raised to commercialise and deploy Highview’s Millennium Series of 3.2GWh hybrid LDES facilities, which will include further plants across the UK and follow the development of a 300MWh liquid air energy storage facility at Carrington in Manchester, which is currently under construction and is expected to have its first phase operational in August 2026 while the liquid air energy storage system is expected to be operational by 2027.
Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive, Centrica said: “Low carbon storage is an essential part of the solution for how we manage the energy system of the future, and Highview’s LDES system is the kind of innovative facility that is needed as the UK transitions to a more intermittent energy mix from renewables.
Hunterston’s grid and analytics services will also enable the UK grid operator to better balance supply and demand challenges and help ensure our customers have electricity available when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. We’re proud to strengthen our partnership with Highview as an investor as well as continuing to share our expertise on the energy transition and power storage.”
