Morrison Energy Services and Sungrow have been announced as partners for SSE Renewable’s 320MW Yorkshire battery storage project.
Morrison Energy Services, a part of M Group Services’ Energy Division, has been appointed as the project’s principal contractor, and Sungrow will supply the battery energy storage system (BESS).
Located in Monk Fryston, North Yorkshire, the site aims to energise in late 2025 after SSE made a final investment decision on the project back in November 2023.
Once operational, it will be one of the largest battery storage systems in the country, capable of powering over half a million UK homes for up to two hours at a time.
Richard Cave-Bigley, director of solar and battery at SSE Renewables, said: “We are excited to be working with Morrison Energy Services and Sungrow on our largest battery storage project to date.
“Projects like our battery storage facility at Monk Fryston are crucial in reaching the UK’s net zero goals and being able to harness the abundance of energy generated from our existing renewables portfolio.”
James Li, director ESS of Sungrow Europe, said: “We are delighted to support another landmark BESS project in the UK that will aid in enhancing the utilisation of renewable energy and the overall stability and flexibility of the power grid.”
SSE Renewable’s UK portfolio
The past year has seen the renewable energy company both begin and complete construction on multiple UK sites.
Most notable is the firm’s first operative battery energy storage system (BESS), which was launched last week and has a capacity of 50MW/100MWh.
The final energisation tests for the 2-hour duration BESS, located at Salisbury, Wiltshire, were completed, and the asset is now trading in Great Britain’s wholesale energy market.
As SSE’s flagship site, Salisbury BSS will contribute to SSE’s Net Zero Acceleration Programme, a fully funded five-year investment plan. SSE Renewables will invest over £7 billion up until 2027 – an average of almost £4 million a day – to deliver low-carbon infrastructure.
Moreover, in August 2023, SSE Renewables broke ground on its 150MW/300MWh BESS in West Yorkshire, neighbouring the Monk Fryston site.
The firm confirmed that the project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024 and will be able to provide the GB national grid with 300MWh of flexible capacity for two-hour periods.
The project, located at the company’s former Ferrybridge coal-fired power station, is also being developed in conjunction with battery technology supplier Sungrow Power Supply and construction partner OCU Services. It will harness Sungrow’s liquid-cooled energy storage system, dubbed ‘PowerTitan’.
In March of this year, it was announced that systems integrator Fluence will supply batteries for a 150MW/300MWh battery storage project at Fiddler’s Ferry, Warrington.
The two-hour duration project will use Fluence’s Gridstack platform, the company’s modular BESS solution, which is being used in multiple international storage developments, such as an Australian 300MW grid-forming project.
SSE Renewables selected Fluence to supply the BESS and contracted Stockport-based OCU Energy as a principal contractor at Fiddler’s Ferry.
The battery storage project is situated at the former SSE-owned coal-fired power station at Fiddler’s Ferry. The power station was decommissioned in March 2020, and the final demolition of its cooling towers occurred at the end of last year.