YLEM Energy arm Root-Power, which launched earlier this year, has been granted planning permission for a 12MW/48MWh battery energy storage site in Caterham, Surrey.
The 4-hour Tillingdown Farm site, expected to go live in 2025, is located in both the green belt and the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). As such, the development process was “exhaustive” and the Root-Power team consulted with AONB officials and local conservation groups before submitting the planning application in late 2023.
The planning application was supported by an Alternative Site Assessment (ASA) and Greenbelt Justification Report, which excluded other sites. The report concluded that there were no other suitable locations outside the AONB or green belt.
The development site has also been designated as one of Britain’s 56 ‘Habitats of Principle Importance’ (HPI). As such, Root-Power had to demonstrate that the existing habitat was replaceable before development planning could progress.
As a result, the 12MW battery energy storage development will be one of the first in the country (and the first for Tandridge Council, which approved the project) to be consented on the condition that off-site biodiversity units are secured: Root -Power will secure off-site biodiversity units through a habitat bank.
Neil Brooks, managing director of Root-Power, said: “Due to the project’s unique combination of planning constraints, it was a challenging project to obtain planning permission and we are pleased to have been able to obtain this consent through a delegated decision. without the need for an appeal.”
Root-Power enters the British BESS market
Root-Power is YLEM Energy’s specialized battery energy storage system (BESS) owner-operator focused on business energy generation. It was launched in July this year, with a pipeline of 40 projects ranging in size from 11 MW to 100 MW.
One of the largest projects in the pipeline, the 100MW/200MWh Granborough Project in Buckinghamshire, has already reached the advanced development stage of the planning process.
The company shows no signs of slowing down and earlier this month submitted planning applications for a further five BESS projects with a capacity of 210 MW. Getting through the planning process is clearly not an issue for the developer, with Brooks noting that Tillingdown’s consent proves Root-Power’s ability to obtain planning permission for renewable energy projects in the most challenging environments.
