Root-Power, a battery energy storage system (BESS) developer, has been granted planning permission for a 50MW/100MWh BESS in Scotland.
Glasgow City Council gave its approval to the Broomlan Road BESS project, which will be located in the center of Glasgow, at a meeting in October. The site, a former shipping container storage site located close to Ibrox Stadium, will accommodate up to eight BESS containers, as well as a 33kV/600V BESS transformer, a 33kV substation and other associated infrastructure. Development of the project began in late 2023, and although no date for the start of construction has yet been announced, the development will be operational by mid-2026.
Neil Brooks, managing director at Root-Power said: “Moving this project into the detailed engineering phase is a significant milestone for Root-Power.
“We look forward to working with our key partners and stakeholders as our delivery team continues construction of the site so it can join our growing portfolio of operational battery energy storage sites across the UK.”
Root-Power’s bumper 2024
Root-Power has been hugely successful since launching earlier this year as a specialist BESS offshoot of YLEM Energy. The company already has a 2GW BESS pipeline in various stages of development and has previously committed to submitting a flurry of construction applications by 2024.
In September, Root-Power submitted construction applications for five BESS projects with a total capacity of 210 MW, spread across England. Later that month, the company announced it had been granted permission for a 12 MW/24 MWh development in Caterham, Surrey. Less than two weeks later, construction began on the company’s third UK BESS project, an 11 MW/22 MWh project in Corringham, Essex.
More recently, in October, Root-Power submitted planning applications for 315 MW of BESS developments, expected to be located in England and Wales. The largest site, a proposed 100MW/200MWh development near Camblesforth in Selby, North Yorkshire, is close to the grid connection point for the Drax power station; if approved, the eventual development will result in a 13% habitat gain in the area.
In an exclusive article for the sister site of Solar Power Portal Current±, Brooks highlighted the crucial importance of BESS in the UK’s move towards net zero, calling batteries “the most adaptable solution for stabilizing the intermittent nature of wind and solar power generation”.
