Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners announced that it has acquired a consented 350MW Solar + Battery storage project, located in Kent, UK (“Project Fortressâ€).
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Quinbrook expects to commence construction of the project in the first half of 2022.
Once operational, Fortress is expected to be the largest single site solar PV installation in the UK, and is more than three times the size of the UK’s next largest consented solar PV project.
The addition of battery storage to large scale solar generation at Fortress is designed to provide critical support to improve security and reliability for the UK power grid and help continue the UK’s sustainable drive to Net Zero.
Fortress is forecast to generate enough renewable power each year to meet the power needs of c. 100,000 UK homes and to help reduce carbon emissions by 164,450 tonnes in its first year of operations alone.
Fortress includes an extensive landscape and biodiversity management plan, designed in collaboration with Natural England, Kent Wildlife Trust, RSPB, and the Environment Agency, that will add more than 3.5km of native hedgerow screen planting across the site and seek to deliver a net gain of 65 percent in biodiversity.
Project Fortress follows closely behind Quinbrook’s massive Gemini Solar + Battery Storage Project in Nevada, US, which is currently under construction. Developed by Quinbrook portfolio company Primergy Solar, Gemini is a US$1.1 billion, 690 MW solar PV and 380 MW battery storage system and is believed to be the largest co located solar PV and battery storage project in US history.
Gemini is expected to host over 1.8 million solar modules and generate enough renewable energy to meet the residential power demands of the entire City of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Primergy Solar also recently announced the 600 MW Hot Pot and Iron Point solar + battery storage projects in Nevada which are proposed to replace the retiring North Valmy coal fired power station.
Quinbrook’s Nevada projects together with Fortress bring the current solar + battery storage portfolio to well over 1.6 GW of solar PV and 1 GW of battery storage capacity representing over USD 2.5 billion of project capital investment for the US and UK renewables markets.
Preliminary analysis by Quinbrook indicates that during its expected lifetime, Fortress could support approximately 1,000 jobs (direct and indirect) and contribute in excess of GBP 100 million2 in local socio economic contributions from lease payments to landowners and local taxes. ■