Quinbrook to build a solar and battery storage project in the UK

Once operational, Fortress is expected to be one of the largest single site solar photovoltaic (PV) installations 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.

A Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), Fortress was granted development consent by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in May 2020. It is forecast to generate enough renewable power each year to meet the power needs of approximately 100 000 UK homes and to help reduce carbon emissions by 164 450 t 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 3.5 km of native hedgerow screen planting across the site and seek to deliver a net gain of 65% in biodiversity.

Project Fortress follows closely behind Quinbrook’s massive Gemini solar and 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 one of the largest co-located solar PV and battery storage projects 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 and 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 and battery storage portfolio to well over 1.6 GW of solar PV and 1 GW of battery storage capacity representing over US$2.5 billion of project capital investment for the US and UK renewables markets.

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