Highview has secured £130m ($171.13m) in funding to initiate phase one of its planned 3.2GWh long-duration energy storage (LDES) facility in Hunterston, Scotland.
With this capital raise, the company’s total funding for the commercialisation and deployment of its storage solutions now exceeds £500m.
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The project will be located at the Peel Ports site in North Ayrshire.
It is expected to create 1,000 on-site jobs during construction and sustain 650 supply chain roles across all project phases.
The latest funding round includes participation from Scottish National Investment Bank, Centrica, and investors such as Goldman Sachs, KIRKBI, and Mosaic Capital.
The capital will finance the first phase of the Hunterston project, referred to as a ‘stability island’, which is designed to provide essential system support to the electricity grid.
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By GlobalDataThe project is set to be operational by January 2028, with the entire facility targeted for completion by 2030.
This stability island can operate independently from the energy storage systems, delivering critical inertia, short-circuit, and voltage support to the UK power grid.
The asset is strategically located to address considerable grid stability challenges and will help facilitate the transmission of power from Scotland’s generation points to high-demand areas, reducing wind energy curtailment across the network.
Scottish National Investment Bank chief investment officer Mark Munro said: “Wind production curtailment and intermittency continue to be challenges across the supply chain. As Scotland scales its renewable energy production, it’s critical that grid resilience is fortified so that more of it can be used.
“Working in partnership with Highview, our investment in the development of this exciting project will deliver vital infrastructure to help ensure a more stable, clean energy future.”
The Hunterston facility marks the launch of Highview’s millennium series of 3.2GWh hybrid LDES plants, with additional projects planned across the UK.
This comes alongside the ongoing development of a 300MWh liquid air energy storage (LAES) facility at Carrington in Manchester, England.
In addition to the stability island, the Hunterston facility will integrate a hybrid LDES system that combines LAES with lithium ion batteries.
The site will also feature an advanced grid analytics function, providing detailed insights into current and future energy usage and grid activity.
Highview chief executive Richard Butland said: “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 in 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.”
