Two raster scale battery energy systems (BESS) are approved for construction in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Apatura announced that its 50 MW/100MWH Bess near Oost -Kilbride was approved by the Scottish Energy Compests Unit (ECU), which has protected the ninth Bess development in the last 16 months.
The 5.5 hectare site was mainly selected because of the proximity of the Oostkilbride under station. It will consist of 16 battery container units and infrastructure, including transformers and a substation building.
The decision stated that the development would not have “significant long -term effects on the environmental quality of the green belt”.
Apatura’s Chief Development Officer Andrew Philpott noted: “The construction of the project will offer the local East Kilbrid -Economy a considerable stimulus. It will directly create jobs with the construction, operational and dismantling phases of the project, and also indirectly in the supply chain and in relative services.”
The decision follows an accuracy of a 40 MW/80mWh Bess in Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire, which brought Apurura’s total permitted Bess portfolio to 1.5 GW.
Zenobē receives approval for a maximum of 200 MW Bess
Documents published on the ECU website yesterday also appears that an application for a Bess with an installed capacity of up to 200 MW, brought forward by Tnei Services Limited (TNEI) on behalf of Zenobē Energy, has been approved.
The 12-hectare site comprises a maximum of 34 BESS units and supporting technology, to connect to nearby Coalburn understation via underground cabling.
In August 2022, a screening was published in August 2022 that advised that the development would not require an environmental impact assessment. South Lanarkshire Council, the planning authority for the area, ordered the approval plans.
Planning documents submitted in June 2023 state that National Grid had provided an early connection date of June 2026.
From a geographical point of view, Scotland is a competitive area for Bess development due to the large quantities of wind generation in the country that cannot be exported across the border to England because of the insufficient transmission network.
One way to mitigate this is offering large-scale Bess, to store surplus electricity that is generated by wind energy factories to discharge when needed.
Zenobē has various Bess developments in the pipeline for Scotland. In March it announced that his 200 MW/400MWH Blackhillock Bess started commercial activities, the largest of its kind to do this in Europe.
