4 May 2021
JLEN Environmental Assets Group Limited
("JLEN" or the "Company")
Acquisition of a 50 MW battery storage project
JLEN, the listed environmental infrastructure fund, is pleased to announce the acquisition of a 50% equity stake in Sandridge Battery Storage Limited ("SBSL"). SBSL holds the development rights to construct the Sandridge Battery Storage project, a 50MW lithium-ion battery energy storage plant based in Melksham in Wiltshire, UK. The investment has been made alongside Foresight Solar Fund Limited.
The acquisition will see JLEN invest up to £12.7m over the next 12-18 months. The Sandridge project is fully consented and construction ready. The project is expected to reach energisation and start commercial operations in October 2022.
The project will be connected to Southern Electric Power Distribution plc's distribution network and has a 49.9MW import and export connection. The project will provide stability to the grid through provision of Dynamic Containment, or by reducing volatility on the system via wholesale trading in the wholesale power markets and/or the Balancing Mechanism, a tool used by the National Grid to balance supply and demand in real time.
This acquisition represents JLEN's fourth investment into battery storage systems, adding to the two co-located batteries that the Company owns as part of its run-of-river hydro portfolio, as well as the standalone West Gourdie project in Scotland, which was acquired in March 2021.
Richard Morse, Chairman of JLEN, said:
"We are happy to announce JLEN's latest investment into the energy storage market which is our second grid-scale battery project and the fourth asset to be added to JLEN's portfolio of battery energy storage systems. We believe that assets such as these will provide a vital balancing mechanism to the grid that will aid in the rollout of intermittently generating renewable energy systems and play an important role in the decarbonisation agenda of the national grid."
For further information, please contact:
Foresight Group Chris Tanner Chris Holmes |
+44(0)20 3667 8100 |
Winterflood Investment Trusts Neil Langford Chris Mills |
+44(0)20 3100 0000
|
SEC Newgate Elisabeth Cowell Megan Kovach |
+44(0)20 3757 6880 |
Praxis Fund Services Matt Falla Gemma Woods
|
+44(0)1481 755530 |
About JLEN
JLEN's investment policy is to invest in a diversified portfolio of Environmental Infrastructure. Environmental Infrastructure is defined by the Company as infrastructure assets, projects and asset-backed businesses that utilise natural or waste resources or support more environmentally friendly approaches to economic activity, support the transition to a low carbon economy or which mitigate the effects of climate change. Such investments will typically feature one or more of the following characteristics:
· long-term, predictable cash flows, which may be wholly or partially inflation-linked cash flows;
· long-term contracts or stable and well-proven regulatory and legal frameworks; or
· well-established technologies, and demonstrable operational performance.
JLEN's aim is to provide investors with a sustainable progressive dividend per share, paid quarterly and to preserve the capital value of the portfolio over the long term on a real basis. The target dividend for the year to 31 March 2022 is 6.801 pence per share. The dividend is payable quarterly.
Further details of the Company can be found on its website www.jlen.com
LEI: 213800JWJN54TFBMBI68
( 1) These are targets only and not profit forecasts. There can be no assurance that these targets will be met or that the Company will make any distributions at all.