Future of GB BESS buildout

Since 2014, battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity in Great Britain (GB) has grown to 1.4 GW (as of March 2022):

Graph showing installed BESS capacity in GB, from 2014 through to Q1 2022 — Figure 1 - GB BESS buildout (January 2014 - March 2022).

On top of this growth, from 2020 to 2021 average revenues increased by 95%.

The current success story for BESS in GB has gotten attention, and more and more people are looking at the opportunity. To help you understand how quickly the sector’s growing, here’s our view on growth until 2025.

On view on BESS buildout in GB

The graph below shows expected BESS capacity in GB, by quarter (check out how we get these numbers).

Graph showing expected GB BESS capacity, from 2014 through to the end of 2025 — Figure 2 - Future expected GB BESS buildout.

From March 2022 to the end of 2025, there is an expected increase of 4,995 MW of BESS capacity in GB.
This consists of 99 projects that have all secured Capacity Market contracts for delivery during this period.
By the end of 2025, the installed capacity of BESS in GB could exceed other forms of storage (such as pumped hydro), making BESS the dominant storage technology.

Asset size

In our recent industry update we commented on people building bigger assets, and the trend looks like it’s here to stay. The graph below shows the size breakdown for 2025 (in MW).

Figure 3 - Number of BESS sites expected to be built in GB by rated power (MW).

Between now and 2025, the average site capacity is expected to increase from 19.4 MW to 37.7 MW.

Asset duration

There is also currently an ongoing discussion around longer duration systems (see our research on duration).

The graph below shows the estimated duration of assets expected to be built each year, with 37.3% of these being 2-hour systems.

Figure 4 - Estimated duration of assets expected to be built in GB.

Future GB BESS pipeline breakdown

The table below includes the full list of sites we expect to be commissioned between now (March 2022) and the end of 2025, alongside their rated power (MW), their energy capacity (MWh), and their expected operational date (to the nearest quarter).

You can also download the data as an excel file.

Table 1 - Forward visibility on potential BESS assets in GB.

The data behind our view

Each asset identified in Table 1 has been individually researched and analysed using an aggregation of multiple sources. This provides us with as much visibility on future commissioning BESS assets as possible.

Capacity Market (CM) agreements for delivery years 2021-2025 have all been assessed. This includes the aggregation of multiple contracts awarded to individual sites, and the acquisition of sites by new owners.
Other data sources used include the renewable energy planning database (REPD), connection registers, network operator registers, the regulatory news service (RNS), company annual reports, and news articles.
Where possible, we have spoken to owners and developers of identified assets to gain a greater understanding of expected commissioning dates.
In instances where no information has been available, approximations have been made. This includes duration and energy capacity, which we have determined using details from the CM register. In some cases, we have used the delivery year of CM contracts to determine the latest possible commissioning date for assets.

Please do get in touch if you’ve got any questions about how we use this data, we’d love to chat!