European and Canadian investors have committed to a major private debt deal building UK battery storage infrastructure
A consortium of lenders, including Santander, NatWest, ABN Amro, Nord/LB, Investec, and CIBC have invested £220m in Pulse Clean Energy, indicating growing investor appetite for UK battery storage infrastructure.
Purse Clean Energy was previously backed by a consortium involving the National Wealth Fund (NWF) in May 2023 with a £62.5m commitment aimed at crowding in private capital. It marked the National Wealth Fund’s first debt transaction in battery storage.
With private lenders now crowding in, NWF is now able to step back from its role as lender to the sector, Pulse Clean Energy confirmed.
The UK’s National Energy System Operator (NESO), launched in 2024, forecasts the country will need at least 50GW of energy storage power capacity and just under 200GWh of capacity by 2050 - requiring four to five times current capacity by 2030 alone.
This latest green debt transaction, structured in alignment with the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association aims to finance the construction of six new BESS projects will collectively provide over 700MWh of capacity in Scotland, Devon, Greater Manchester, and Wales.
All battery energy storage systems financed by this deal are expected to be operational by the end of 2027.
