UK’s energy transition-focused company EnergyPathways has selected compatriot company Wood as the lead engineering partner for the Marram Energy Storage Hub (MESH) project, a large-scale energy storage facility in the UK Irish Sea that is expected to provide natural gas and green hydrogen supply for the UK market for at least 20 years.
EnergyPathways and Wood have entered into a strategic partnership agreement that will see Wood complete concept engineering and pre-front end engineering and design (FEED) work, eventually progressing the MESH project through the engineering, construction, commissioning and management phases.
As explained, Wood will collaborate and advise EnergyPathways’ technical team to evaluate and further develop both the offshore and onshore facilities for the project.
Under the agreement, Wood will also have an exclusive period within which to offer EnergyPathways terms to progress into FEED, the longer term engineering, procurement, installation, commissioning management (EPICm), and duty holdership and operatorship of the MESH storage facility once commissioned.
Following the agreement with Wood, EnergyPathways said it had provided for a part drawdown of its loan agreement with Global Green Asset Finance to fund concept engineering and pre-FEED activities. The amount drawn down satisfies the minimum drawdown amount of £100,000 under the GGAF loan agreement and is expected to be paid by the end of the year.
Designed as a fully decarbonized and electrified zero-emission facility to be powered by wind farms of the UK Irish Sea Region, MESH is located 11 miles from the Lancashire coast.
According to EnergyPathways, MESH’s underground geo-storage capacity is estimated to be nearly 50 billion cubic feet of gas, equivalent to the size of the Rough facility, which is currently the UK’s largest gas storage facility.
In the longer term, the facility is designed to potentially harness the UK’s excess wind power by producing and storing green hydrogen.
The final investment decision (FID) for the MESH project is expected to be reached at the end of 2025.