M&G has bet £150m on the expansion plans if Zenobe Energy, specialists in battery storage and services to electric vehicle operators.

Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G, will support the company’s growth in grid-scale battery services and electric vehicle and charging infrastructure services, including international expansion.

Combined with debt facilities, the company estimates that this will enable it to deploy around £450m in these sectors, further accelerating the utilisation of batteries to support renewable power generation and the electrification of vehicle fleets in the UK and overseas. This total funding would enable Zenobe to support customers with at least 500MWhr of additional grid connected batteries, and up to a further 1,000 electric buses or vehicles and associated infrastructure software systems over the next 18 to 24 months.

The investment follows on from the raise of £40m of equity from private investors and the leading early stage infrastructure investor Tiger Infrastructure Partners LP in 2017; £25m of equity from JERA Storage BV and the first non-recourse debt facility against battery storage projects from Santander Group (£25m), both completed in 2019; and receivables financing from NatWest Group (£20m) in June 2020, to support Zenobe’s EV fleet business.

Zenobe Energy has around 170MW of contracted storage assets, around 20 per cent market share of the EV bus sector and its own proprietary software and a large portfolio of projects in the pipeline.

Five new centres were announced today as part of a £22.5 million government investment. They will explore how reusing waste materials in the textiles, construction, chemical and metal industries could deliver huge environmental benefits and boost the UK economy.

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