John Laing Environmental Assets Group Limited (JLEN) has acquired two operational low head hydropower stations and a battery storage system located in Yorkshire, UK.

JLEN acquired the projects’ owner – Yorkshire Hydropower Holdings Limited (YHHL) – for £4.3 million.  The deal represents JLEN’s first investment in run-of-river hydro and battery storage, adding to it’s portfolio of environmental infrastructure projects including, wind, solar, anaerobic digestion, waste and wastewater.

The projects acquired are:

  • Kirkthorpe hydro, a 500kW single turbine hydro project located on the River Calder, which was commissioned on 21 November 2016
  • Thrybergh hydro, a twin screw 260kW hydro project located on the River Don, commissioned 26 October 2015; and
  • A 1.2MW battery co-located at Thrybergh, commissioned in January 2018.

Both hydro projects are accredited under the 20-year Feed-in-Tariff scheme.  The battery storage project at Thrybergh is currently dedicated to a Firm Frequency Response contract. 

This acquisition increases the total capacity of renewable energy assets in the JLEN investment portfolio to 281.16MW.