Image: Harmony Energy.

Harmony Energy has been given the go ahead for its latest grid-scale battery energy storage system to date. 

The 49.5MW lithium-ion system is to be located in Salisbury, Wiltshire, with grid, land rights and planning permission now secured.

The system is set to provide balancing services to National Grid, with the site on land adjacent to Salisbury Substation. It will connect to the distribution network at 132kV, “allowing more intermittent renewable energy from wind and solar projects to be installed onto the grid,” Pete Grogan, director at Harmony Energy said, describing the project as “shovel-ready”.

It is the latest in Harmony Energy’s pipeline of grid-scale battery energy storage developments to have been granted planning permission.

In November, it secured planning permission for a second 49.5MW battery energy storage system at its Creyke Beck site, taking the site to 99MW. Its pipeline now totals over 500MW, it said, which are all either construction-ready or in development in the UK.

“We are entering a critical period for the future of the UK’s energy supply. Coal-fired power is on track to be phased out by 2025 and with strict targets to decarbonise our system through the continued rollout of low-carbon generation, utility-scale energy storage systems like these are key to maintaining security, stability and flexibility,” Grogan added.