A private equity firm has invested £30 million in a battery storage project developer.

The move marks Zouk’s latest departure from traditional energy infrastructure investments and will see it work with Green Hedge to develop, build and operate a planned pipeline of ‘energy barns’.

These are lithium-ion battery systems housed inside purpose-built buildings – Green Hedge has applied to connect 10.5GW to the grid and will bid its best sites into the capacity market auction early next year.

The company’s next wave of energy barns will also provide frequency response to National Grid.

The investment, which was made by Zouk’s £184.6 million second infrastructure fund, REEIF II, sees the business take a majority stake in Green Hedge from the developer’s management team, who retain a minority interest.

Zouk Partner Massimo Resta said: “We believe that these assets require some commercial acumen.

“They require a number of decisions in the way they are operated and we felt the assets in the pipeline were as important as the team developing the opportunities.”

Glasgow firm Aggreko recently agreed to buy an energy storage company for £40 million.