Battery energy storage system (BESS) developer Root-Power has been granted planning permission for a 50MW/100MWh BESS in Scotland.
Glasgow City Council gave its stamp of approval for the Broomlan Road BESS project, which will be located in Glasgow city centre, at a meeting in October. The site, a former shipping container storage yard located close to Ibrox Stadium, will host 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 while a date for the start of construction has not been announced, the development is set to be operational by mid-2026.
Neil Brooks, managing director at Root-Power said: “Moving this project into the detailed engineering phase is a key milestone for Root-Power.
“We look forward to working with our key partners and stakeholders as our delivery team progresses the site through construction so that it can join our growing portfolio of operational battery energy storage sites across the UK.”
Root-Power’s bumper 2024
Root-Power has been immensely successful since launching earlier this year as a specialised BESS offshoot of YLEM Energy. The company already has a 2GW BESS pipeline in various stages of development, having previously committed to submitting a blizzard of planning applications in 2024.
In September, Root-Power submitted planning applications for five BESS projects totalling 210MW, spread across England. Later that month, the company announced it had been granted permission for a 12MW/24MWh development in Caterham, Surrey. Less than two weeks later, construction began on the company’s third UK BESS project, an 11MW/22MWh development in Corringham, Essex.
More recently, in October, Root-Power submitted planning applications for 315MW of BESS developments, set to be located in England and Wales. The largest site, a proposed 100MW/200MWh development near Camblesforth in Selby, North Yorkshire, is located near the grid connection point for the Drax Power Station; if approved, the final development will result in a 13% habitat gain in the area.
In an exclusive article for Solar Power Portal’s sister site Current±, Brooks highlighted the crucial importance of BESS in the UK’s move towards net zero, calling batteries “the most adaptable solution for stabilising the intermittent nature of wind and solar power generation”.
