New York-based Tiger Infrastructure Partners has led a £50 million ($66.3 million; €56.3 million) investment in UK-based energy storage firm Battery Energy Storage Solutions.
The commitment, from an undisclosed number of investors, is expected to be used by BESS to grow a portfolio of UK storage projects to over 60MW before year-end. Sites will be co-located with solar farms or standalone projects.
In addition to the new equity investment, BESS has also recently raised the first non-recourse senior debt facility on batteries.
“This capital raise has demonstrated the credibility of our battery storage proposition,” said BESS co-founder James Basden, who also leads consulting group Oliver Wyman’s global utilities practice. “It now enables BESS to pursue the acquisition of grid-scale projects at the right locations. We also want to support behind-the-meter battery applications with large scale industrial and commercial users of electricity.”
BESS was co-founded last year and features Steven Holliday, the former chief executive of National Grid, as a director, according to Companies House.
The investment is Tiger Infrastructure’s first venture into the UK market and its maiden storage commitment since its formation in 2009 by Julian Robertson and Emil Henry, former assistant secretary of the US Treasury. The firm already has a European footprint with its commitment to data centre developer Etix Everywhere and its agreement this year to finance a 565km subsea cable link between Ireland and France.
Tiger’s investment in BESS is towards the upper end of its stated $10 million-$50 million range preference, although it says this can be extended with participation of co-investors. It is focused on the communications, energy and transportation sectors.
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try to sign in again. If the problem persists, please email: