Britain’s Billion Pound Battery

Written by Paul Homewood on September 24, 2025. Posted in Current News

Fidra Energy, a European battery energy storage system (BESS) platform headquartered in Edinburgh, UK, today announced it has secured up to £445 million of new equity investment from EIG and the National Wealth Fund (the NWF) as it reaches financial close on the UK’s largest Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project at its Thorpe Marsh site in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

Construction of Thorpe Marsh is set to begin immediately and, in addition to the investment by EIG and the NWF, will be funded by new loan facilities of £594 million from a club of international lenders1. Thorpe Marsh is the largest standalone BESS project financed globally and the largest BESS financing in Europe.

The 1,400 MW / 3,100MWh project, which is expected to be operational starting in mid-2027, will be the largest battery storage facility in the UK and among the largest in Europe. Once completed, Thorpe Marsh is expected to be three times larger than any other BESS project currently in operation or under construction in the UK and will have the potential to export over 2 million MWh annually, enough to supply about 785,000 homes each year.

Battery storage is essential to the UK energy transition, enabling the integration of renewables into the grid and helping to reduce energy waste, improve grid stability and provide greater network flexibility.

https://fidraenergy.com/fidra-energy-reaches-financial-close-on-the-uks-largest-battery-energy-storage-project-backed-by-eig-and-the-national-wealth-fund/

The likes of AEP often talk about the cost of batteries but never factor in all of the associated costs – site construction, infrastructure, grid connections, ancillary electrical equipment and so on.

Thorpe Marsh looks like costing over a billion pounds. The nameplate capacity of 3100 MWh will not all be usable. Allowing for line losses, deterioration of time and the fact that you would never drain the battery completely, 2 MWh would be the most you could sensibly plan for.

To put that into perspective, you would need 500 Thorpe Marsh BESS plants to store 1 TWh, which is not even enough to keep the grid going for one day.

As for a dunkelflaute, the Royal Society reckoned we would 100 TWh of storage to guarantee supplies all year round.

I leave you to do the sums!

BTW – Fidra’s claim that it “will have the potential to export over 2 million MWh annually, enough to supply about 785,000 homes each year”, is grossly dishonest. Batteries cannot supply any power, as it is generated somewhere else first. That electricity still has to be paid for in addition to the costs of the battery storage.

Still I am sure those 785,000 homeowners would be delighted to get the bill for £1274 to pay for Thorpe Marsh!

source  notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com

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