JLL Advises Gigabox in sale of their 49.9MW BESS development project in Scotland

JLL acted as exclusive sell-side M&A advisor to Gigabox Developments Limited (‘Gigabox’) for their 49.9MW BESS Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project, Gigabox No 4 Limited (Lunanhead). Following a competitive process, the opportunity was awarded to two publicly listed funds managed by Foresight Group LLP (‘Foresight’), JLEN Environmental Assets Group Limited (‘JLEN’) and Foresight Solar Fund Limited (‘FSFL’).

Gigabox are a leading renewable energy developer and joint venture partner between The Energy Workshop Ltd and Decerna Limited. This process builds on a successful relationship between Gigabox and JLL, following the successful sale of consented BESS project in 2021.

Lunanhead is a ready-to-build BESS projects located 13km North of Dundee, near Forfar. The 49.9MW project is expected to become operational from 2024 and once energised, the projects will help facilitate the build out of renewable energy in Scotland by providing much needed frequency support and energy balancing to the electricity network.

This sale was the latest in a series of successful BESS processes run by JLL, following to the disposal of Aura Power’s c.250MW portfolio to TRIG last month. JLL’s volume of completed GB BESS transactions is now in excess of 3GW with 950MW transacted in 2022 to date.

Thomas Chappell, Director of Gigabox Developments "Gigabox is proud to be at the forefront of the UK energy transition that is currently underway. We are grateful to the excellent JLL team for helping us realise full value for the project; and to the team at Foresight for delivering a smooth transaction process. We will be continuing to progress and expand our strong pipeline of battery projects in the UK over the coming months."

Max Stirling, Manager, Energy & Infrastructure Advisory, EMEA, JLL “This transaction represents the eighth that JLL has completed in 2022 across c.1GW of pre-construction, operational and platform level BESS transactions, more than any other advisor in Europe. It was a pleasure to work with the outstanding team once again at Gigabox and we look forward to further collaboration over the course of 2022 and beyond.”

Dane Wilkins, Head of Energy & Infrastructure Advisory, EMEA, JLL “Following the outcome of ScotWind earlier this year, an additional 25GW of offshore wind is locked in to be built out helping deliver industrial strategy of 80GW fleet to address Net Zero goals. As a result, the regional requirement for flexibility capacity such as utility scale energy storage has never been more apparent. It is exciting to witness developers and investors both capitalising on this thematic opportunity and will also facilitate further renewable energy deployment and showcase Scotland as a world leading market player in decarbonisation.”