Renewable Power Capital (RPC) and Greenfield have been granted planning permission for their second battery energy storage system (BESS) in the UK.
The 40 MW BESS will be located in Tredington, Warwickshire, and will be connected to the distribution network. It comes after the companies, under a partnership agreement, secured planning permission for a separate 22.8MW BESS project called Steventon.
Both projects have been designed with a view to improving the natural habitat at the sites. In Tredington, an increase of 21.33% for surface habitat units and 191.51% for hedgerow units is proposed and Steventon will see a net biodiversity gain of 30.73% habitat units and 62.36% hedgerow units.
Construction of both projects is expected to take between six and 12 months. RPC, headquartered in London, acquired both BESS projects from Greenfield in May 2023, when the two signed a development agreement. The companies aim to bring 500 MW of battery storage projects to the ready-to-build phase.
RPC was launched in December 2020 by Canada Pension Plan Investments (CPP Investments), a state-owned pension investment fund.
At the time of the partnership announcement, no details were given about the Tredington or Steventon BESS. It followed RPC’s first foray into the UK market through a joint venture with battery storage company Eelpower. Shortly after the collaboration with Greenfield, RPC signed a new joint venture with Spain-based renewable energy company Elmya Energy.
RPC CEO Kevin Devlin said receiving planning permission was a “real milestone” for the company, having only been active in the GB storage market since last year. He added that the government’s Clean Power 2030 plan has been a “positive signal” for investors and that the company sees “huge growth potential for energy storage” in Britain.
RES Alness BESS receives permission
In similar news, renewable energy company RES’s 45MW BESS near the Alness substation in Scotland has also been approved.
RES says it has developed more than 830 MW of energy storage projects in the UK and Ireland. At the very top of this year, it has submitted a planning application for a 100MW BESS to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council in Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
The Alness facility is RES’s second project to move forward this week, after the company opened a second round of consultation on a solar plus storage development for Nottinghamshire. RES has a grid connection agreement for up to 600 MW of combined solar and battery energy storage, but distribution between solar and associated battery components has not yet been completed.
