Morrison Energy Services and Sungrow have been announced as partners for SSE Renewable’s 320MW battery storage project in Yorkshire.
Morrison Energy Services, part of the Energy Division of M Group Services, has been appointed as the main contractor for the project, and Sungrow will supply the battery energy storage system (BESS).
The site, located in Monk Fryston, North Yorkshire, aims to be powered by the end of 2025, after SSE made a final investment decision on the project in November 2023.
Once operational, it will be one of the country’s largest battery storage systems, capable of powering more than half a million British homes for up to two hours.
Richard Cave-Bigley, director of solar and batteries at SSE Renewables, said: “We are delighted to be working with Morrison Energy Services and Sungrow on our largest battery storage project to date.
“Projects such as our battery storage facility at Monk Fryston are crucial to achieving the UK’s net zero targets and harnessing the abundance of energy generated from our existing portfolio of renewables.”
James Li, ESS Director at Sungrow Europe, said: “We are delighted to support another ground-breaking BESS project in the UK that will help improve the use of renewable energy and the overall stability and flexibility of the electricity grid. ”
SSE Renewable’s UK portfolio
Over the past year, the renewable energy company has started and completed construction at multiple locations in the United Kingdom.
Most notable is the company’s first operational battery energy storage system (BESS), which was launched last week and has a capacity of 50MW/100MWh.
Final energy testing for the two-hour BESS, based in Salisbury, Wiltshire, has been completed and the asset is now trading on the UK wholesale energy market.
As SSE’s flagship location, Salisbury BSS will contribute to SSE’s Net Zero Acceleration Programme, a fully funded five-year investment plan. SSE Renewables will invest more than £7 billion – an average of almost £4 million per day – to deliver low-carbon infrastructure by 2027.
Additionally, in August 2023, SSE Renewables broke ground on its 150MW/300MWh BESS in West Yorkshire, adjacent to the Monk Fryston site.
The company confirmed that the project will be completed by the end of 2024 and will be able to supply the UK national grid with 300 MWh of flexible capacity over two-hour periods.
The project, located at the former Ferrybridge coal-fired power station, is also being developed in collaboration with battery technology supplier Sungrow Power Supply and construction partner OCU Services. It will use Sungrow’s liquid-cooled energy storage system, called ‘PowerTitan’.
In March this year it was announced that systems integrator Fluence will supply batteries for a 150MW/300MWh battery storage project at Fiddler’s Ferry, Warrington.
The two-hour project will leverage Fluence’s Gridstack platform, the company’s modular BESS solution, which is being used in multiple international storage developments, such as an Australian 300MW network formation project.
SSE Renewables selected Fluence to deliver the BESS and contracted Stockport-based OCU Energy as main contractor at Fiddler’s Ferry.
The battery storage project is located at the former SSE coal-fired power plant in Fiddler’s Ferry. The power plant was decommissioned in March 2020 and the final demolition of the cooling towers took place at the end of last year.
