Fidra closes £231m debt for 500MW UK battery project
Fidra Energy has locked down £231m in debt for a 500MW UK battery storage site, signalling strong lender appetite for projects backed by capacity market awards and corporate offtake agreements.
Fidra Energy has reached financial close on the West Burton C battery project in Nottinghamshire, securing £231m in new loan facilities from a consortium of international lenders. The debt facility accounts for the vast majority of the estimated £250m total investment, supplementing existing equity commitments from backers EIG and the National Wealth Fund. Nomura Greentech and EIG advised the Edinburgh-based developer on the debt raise.
The financing structure highlights how de-risked revenue streams are unlocking capital for grid-scale storage. Drax Group has signed a long-term offtake agreement for 50% of the project's capacity. The remaining revenue profile is anchored by a 15-year capacity market award granted by the UK government in March 2025, which commences in October 2028.
The 500MW, 1.1GWh facility will be built on a former coal power station site, adjacent to the UK's planned prototype fusion energy plant. Once operational, the installation is designed to power roughly 300,000 homes during periods of peak demand. Construction is slated to begin late in 2026, with Sungrow supplying the batteries and H&MV Engineering managing the 400kV grid connection.
For market participants, the deal underscores the investability of assets repurposing legacy fossil fuel infrastructure. The UK's Clean Power 2030 Action Plan explicitly relies on short-duration battery storage to manage grid volatility, setting an operational target of 22GW to 27GW by the end of the decade.
West Burton C forms part of Fidra's rapidly expanding UK infrastructure portfolio, which now exceeds 4GW. This pipeline growth includes last month's acquisition of the Enderby BESS project in Leicestershire from Innova.
"Today's milestone marks another major achievement for Fidra Energy," said CEO Chris Elder. "This project is expected to deliver flexible and affordable electricity storage utilising existing infrastructure at a site with a long history of power generation. We are delighted to have secured the support of existing and new lenders to fund the construction of this project, one of the largest battery energy storage sites in the UK, alongside commitments from EIG and the National Wealth Fund."
