Statkraft has reached a milestone in the construction of a 200MW 2-hour duration battery energy storage system (BESS).
A total of 620 battery units have arrived at the Thornton Greener Grid Park, situated in East Yorkshire. Expected to be operational in Autumn 2025, the site will store energy generated at the nearby (but separate) 49.9 MW Soay Solar Farm project, also being developed by Statkraft.
Statkraft’s BESS projects are intended for short-term storage and typically have a two-hour duration. These systems can provide temporary storage for same-day deployment or quickly deliver large amounts of power to the grid to maintain network stability. The BESS and the solar power plant will connect to Thornton substation.
Kevin O’Donovan, Statkraft’s UK managing director, said: “We are on an exciting journey, with almost 20 projects waiting to be built across a range of technologies, as we continue to invest significantly in the UK’s renewable energy infrastructure, which will help bring down electricity bills for consumers and businesses and reduce carbon emissions for everyone.”
Statkraft has a UK investment pipeline of £4 billion, including other Greener Grid Parks across the UK. These include one in Moray, Scotland, which features two Rotating Stabiliser synchronous machines, and a site in Swansea which was granted planning permission in 2021 and is to feature an energy management system building and 12 containerised battery storage units.
The Scottish Greener Grid Park stepped in during a recent interconnector trip: as Irish grid frequency sank to almost 49.7Hz, the 26MW Kelwin Battery project in County Kerry, Ireland—which is owned by Statkraft—began exporting power within seconds, while the Scottish Greener Grid Park began importing additional power.
Energy consultancy Cornwall Insight recently confirmed that short-to-medium duration battery storage capacity on Ireland’s single electricity market (SEM) will increase fivefold by 2030. Its SEM Benchmark Power Curve sees “significant battery storage growth,” projecting that short-to-medium term lithium-ion battery storage capacity, up to 4h duration, will reach 13.5GWh by 2030, up from 2.7GWh in 2025.
Statkraft is currently developing Ireland’s first 4-hour grid-scale BESS in County Offaly, in Ireland’s midlands. The 20MW BESS will be co-located with the company’s 55.8MW Cushaling Wind Farm, which is also currently under construction.
In a feature article that originally appeared in Vol.39 of PV Tech Power, Statkraft’s Rory Griffin wrote about the challenges and opportunities encountered during the project’s development, explaining that Statkraft sees significant potential in co-location/hybrid assets under the same grid connection and is urging for policy changes in this area to maximise system benefit.
