Developer Apatura has secured planning permission for a 400MW battery energy storage system (BESS) to be built in central Scotland.
The Scottish government’s Energy Consents Unit okayed the project, which will cover 11.2 hectares of landnear the village of Plean, five mils southeast of Stirling. The Denny project is the seventh that Apatura has had consent for in the last 12 months, bringing its approved pipeline to 1.4GW.
Scottish Ministers concluded that the proposed new development will “support the resilience of the electricity network through the electricity it stores and the additional technical services it can provide to the electricity system operator.”
The BESS site will comprise the battery storage facility and associated infrastructure as well as the planting of new native species trees to improve biodiversity.
Andrew Philpott, chief development officer at Apatura, said that the local Stirling council lodged no objections to the project.
When it comes online, the 400MW project will contribute to the Scottish government’s goal of generating 50% of the country’s energy consumption from renewable sources by providing grid resilience. Apatura said it worked closely with Stirling Council and the Energy Consents Unit to get the consent, and that the project will also create job opportunities in the area.
Apatura broke the 1GW mark earlier this month with consent granted for a 150MW BESS that will be located in Paisley, Renfrewshire, around 17 miles south-west of Glasgow. In September last year, the storage developer also won approval for Scotland’s largest standalone BESS, a 700MW development in Inverclyde, Scotland.
