Renewable Energy Company RES has announced that it has applied for a building permit for a proposed 150 MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) development in Scotland.
The company has submitted a section 36 request to the Energy Constent Unit (ECU) of the Scottish government for the proposal of Bishops Dal Bess, which is proposed to be between Leitholm and Birgham in the Scottish borders region. The site was chosen because of the proximity of the ECCLES station, to minimize the amount of land required for the project infrastructure and to ensure that the agricultural activities can continue on the project site. RES has not yet stated if it expected that the application would be decided or if the construction will start if approved.
John Hills, development project manager for bishops Dal, said: “Although increasing the installed capacity of BES’s is important to guarantee a reliable, resilient, low -carbon electricity system for the future, we are aware of the concerns of local residents about the number of developments in the area. In every phase of our development plans, all possible cumulative effects with other developments are carefully considered and, where necessary, limited.
In years, RES has developed more than 830 MW of Bess projects in the United Kingdom and Ireland that it has been operational in the UK, which covers for more than ten years. This includes the development, construction and management of the first battery storage facility of Scotland, the 20MW Broxburn Energy Storage Facility in Broxburn, West Lothian, which was commissioned in 2018.
RES ‘Solar Ambitions
In recent months, RES has also worked on developing a large project for Zonne-Plus storage in England.
In January of this year, the company announced that it had launched a second overlegs for the Steeple Renewables project in Nottinghamshire. The company has a grid connection agreement for a total of 600 MW combined solar and bess capacity, but the distribution between solar and storage capacity has not yet been completed. RES, however, stated that it expected that the project would be distributed between 75% solar energy and 25% Bess (400 MW of solar energy and 200 MW) storage, although this can be changed.
The project is located in the pre-application phase and RES has stated that it is planning to submit an application for a development assignment order (DCO)-which is necessary because the 600 MW capacity of the proposed development classifies it as a nationally important infrastructure project (NSIP)-in the second quarter of 2025.
