New technologies offer plenty of investment potential but can throw up nasty surprises. That became evident earlier this year when two of the dedicated battery storage investment trusts, Gresham House Energy Storage (GRID) and Harmony Energy Income (HEIT), canned dividend payouts after issues with National Grid caused revenue problems.
Markets have not looked kindly on this, with GRID and HEIT shareholders taking a paper loss of around 35 and 30 per cent, respectively, in the first half of this year. Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF), which looked to be on firmer footing thanks to its diversification beyond the UK and lower levels of debt, has also seen its shares tumble, if to a lesser extent.
More immature sectors like this can inevitably bring greater risks, but we can still attempt some optimism. Shares in the three trusts do trade on enormous discounts to the stated portfolio net asset value (NAV) and investors have had some positive news to digest in recent months. Gresham House Energy Storage announced in June that 14 of its projects had secured fixed-price contracts with a subsidiary of Octopus Energy, providing a greater degree of certainty over the trust's cash flow.