British power generation firm ContourGlobal has signed a 3GWh BESS supply deal for projects in the UK, Greece and Chile with China’s CATL — further consolidating the Asian battery giant’s grip on the international market.

ContourGlobal, which confirmed the deal on August 10, said it marked the first bundle agreement between the two companies and gives it flexibility to align supply as it develops it battery storage portfolio.

Technology at the core of the agreement is a containerised liquid-cooling integrated BESS built around CATL’s large-format LFP cells. The bundle covers a total of 526 containers each rated at 5.64MWh, all configured for four hours of continuous discharge.

The supply agreement covers three recently announced projects: a 500MW / 2,000MWh stand-alone BESS project in Scotland (marking the company’s entry into the UK market), a 100MW / 400MWh facility in Greece and a hybrid project in Chile, which combines 131 MWp PV coupled with 90MW / 360MWh of battery storage.

ContourGlobal said construction of the Chile and Greece projects is already underway, while the Scotland facility is in advanced development.

In addition, the company has a 1.6GW BESS parc under development in Italy, which falls outside the scope of the CATL deal.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed, but the partners said CATL’s technology will support BESS installations with its proprietary cell-degradation management system that continuously monitors and mitigates the ageing of each cell.

ContourGlobal said this marks the first use of the tech within its portfolio and brings to its fleet a set of design features including integrated liquid-cooling architecture and built-in fire detection and suppression architecture. This ensures stable operation across a wide range of temperatures and mitigating thermal propagation.

CATL will also take back and recycle units at the end of their useful life, in line with European regulatory requirements.

All of the BESS projects will be equipped to support future grid stability services, including grid-forming functionality where required by system operators.

Although grid-forming services are not yet fully recognised or remunerated under most current regulatory frameworks, the partners said the technology is already designed to enable them as markets evolve.

Antonio Cammisecra, CEO of ContourGlobal, said: “Beyond equipment supply, we are establishing a standardised utility-scale BESS platform across multiple countries, enabling consistent engineering, testing, commissioning and long-term asset management.

“By harmonising technical requirements and project execution practices, we reduce delivery risk, accelerate project deployment and create a scalable model for continued growth of our storage business.”

ContourGlobal, which is backed by international investment firm KKR, is an independent power producer operating across the US, Latin America, Europe and Africa.

The company manages a diversified portfolio of nearly 6GW of renewable generation, flexible thermal power and battery energy storage assets, including 3GWh of operating BESS projects across Europe and the Americas. They include a 202MW / 500MWh stand-alone BESS in Bulgaria, one of the largest in Eastern Europe and in Chile — where the company is operating 2.5GWh of BESS across hybrid projects in the Atacama Desert.

Earlier this year, CATL raised the equivalent of $5 billion in a share placement in Hong Kong, pledging to use the cash boost to accelerate construction of new energy projects overseas.

The announcement came just weeks after CATL reported near 40% year-on-year growth in global lithium battery sales for 2025.