EnergyPathways draws first £1m to advance Marram energy storage storage project

EnergyPathways PLC (AIM:EPP) has drawn down £1 million from its recently agreed £15 million financing facility to progress its Marram Energy Storage Hub (MESH) project.

The AIM-listed group, which focuses on energy transition projects, said the funds will support front-end engineering design work for the MESH development in the east Irish Sea, which was started earlier in the week. The project includes what is expected to be the world’s largest compressed air energy storage facilities (CAES).

EnergyPathways added that the storage development will proceed independently of any decision on its gas storage licence application, which remains under review by the North Sea Transition Authority.

Alongside the drawdown, the company issued just over 5 million warrants to the investor. These are exercisable at 8.3p per share, a 40% premium to the reference price of 5.93p.

Separately, nearly 7 million new shares have been issued at 1p each under an at-the-market facility, and will be sold to provide additional working capital.

The MESH CAES project is designed to have around 300 MW of power capacity and 55.2 GWh of storage capacity, creating infrastructure to store and redistribute the UK's growing surplus of renewable energy during periods of low wind, electricity scarcity or high demand.

Pre-FEED work carried out with Siemens Energy confirmed the project's commerciality and economic viability.