
Battery energy storage system (BESS) developer Root-Power has announced that it has submitted planning applications for 315MW of BESS projects across the UK.
The six sites, which will be located in the English regions of North Yorkshire, Devon, Derbyshire, Bedfordshire and Gloucestershire, and Glamorgan in Wales, span a wide range of capacities. 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, 21% hedgerow gain, and a 70% watercourse gain once complete.
Neil Brooks, managing director at Root-Power said: “At Root-Power, we believe battery energy storage systems are key to achieving a flexible, net-zero energy future for the UK and beyond. I’m proud to see another productive month from our team, this continued growth is testament to the skills and experience we’ve assembled across our business.
Our development activities are unparalleled in the sector and will be fundamental to achieving our goal of establishing Root-Power as one of the largest owner-operators of energy storage systems in the UK.”
Meteoric rise for Root-Power
Root-Power launched in July of this year as a specialized BESS offshoot of YELM Energy, and has seen immense growth since its inception.
In August, the firm announced that it teamed up with five major planning consultancies to deliver a blitz of 40 planning applications by the end of the year. Early last month, planning permission was submitted for five BESS projects across England with a combined capacity of 210MW; just a week later, the company celebrated another success with the announcement that it had been granted planning consent for a 12MW/48MWh BESS project in Surrey, England.
Across the company’s 2GW BESS pipeline, Root-Power also has three projects currently under construction. The most recent of these, an 11MW, 2-hour duration asset located in London Gateway on the River Thames’ North Bank, broke ground in late September.
As explored by a contributed blog from Root-Power head Neil Brooks for our sister site Current±, BESS has a key role to play in the UK’s renewable energy future. Indeed, last week BESS developments from several different firms stepped in to quickly balance the UK grid after a major interconnector trip saw 1.4GW of imported power suddenly cut. The UK grid system frequency plummeted as low as 49.59Hz in two seconds—well below the National Energy System Operator (NESO) operational limits – but the fast-acting frequency services from BESS across the UK were able to stabilise the grid in under two minutes.