Shoosmiths advises on sale of Northern Ireland’s first major energy storage project

Leading UK law firm Shoosmiths has advised German renewables developer ABO Wind on the sale of a 50MW battery project located in Kells, Northern Ireland, to the energy storage fund of the Swiss fund manager SUSI Partners for an undisclosed price.

ABO Wind remains general contractor on what is the largest stand-alone battery storage project the company has ever undertaken and is overseeing the entire development and implementation of the battery storage facility and the construction of a substation to feed in the electricity.

This is the first such major storage project in Northern Ireland and will play an essential role in the transition to clean energy. The high-capacity Kells battery facility will also provide services tendered by transmission system operators EirGrid and SONI to stabilise the Irish electricity grid and balance fluctuating generation from wind farms and other intermittent clean energy generators. Commissioning is scheduled for 2022 with construction progressing according to plan.

Tamasin Fraser, director at ABO Wind NI Ltd, said: “Shoosmiths are our go to lawyers when it comes to innovative legal advice and bespoke legal structuring. This project required both; and the excellent market leading advice and support we received from Shoosmiths enabled us to progress this deal quickly, without any disruption to the construction and development schedule.”

The Shoosmiths team was led by John Palmer and James Wood Robertson and included Mark Davis, Ruth Forbes, Eilidh Durkin, Eliza Stubing and Heather Stark.

John Palmer said: “This is a significant deal for many reasons, not just the size and scope of the project, but the key role battery storage has in supporting the electrical system to maximise the use of renewables. Stakeholders and investors increasingly recognise that the role of energy storage is not only crucial in managing renewable energy supply but also in facilitating the adoption and uptake of new clean energy projects that will make achieving emissions reduction targets far more likely within the necessary timescales.”

James Wood-Robertson, head of the firm’s energy and infrastructure sector, added: “We are delighted to have supported the ABO team on this breakthrough project, working collaboratively with SUSI Partners and their adviser teams.  The project demonstrates the appetite for investors and developers to participate in the EirGrid and SONI’s DS3 Programme and, hopefully, this will pave the way for more projects and a wider variety of system services to support and enable greater clean energy generation on the island of Ireland.”