Renewables developer Banks Group has submitted a planning application for an energy storage hub based at the site of a former power station in South Yorkshire.
The project would take advantage of the site’s existing 1450MW connection to the National Grid and would involve the deployment of a 2.8GW-hour battery at Thorpe Marsh near Doncaster.
The Banks project team has reviewed the feedback gathered at the initial consultation event on the scheme held late last year in the village of Barnby Dun, which sits to the east of the proposed site, and has factored it into its planning submission.
Lewis Stokes, senior community relations manager at The Banks Group, said: “This is a nationally significant scheme that will put South Yorkshire at the forefront of developments in the increasingly important energy storage industry, and we’re excited to have reached this stage in its realisation.
“The response we’ve had to our ideas from local people, businesses and community leaders so far has been very encouraging and we’ll continue to speak with as many people as we can in the coming months about everything that this project would deliver.”
The Thorpe Marsh Green Energy Hub would also feature a number of integrated environmental enhancements, including wetlands, woodlands and species-rich grassland, while economic and social benefits would also follow from its development, Banks Group stated.
A separate planning application to complete the reclamation of the power station’s former ash disposal area through the recovery of up to 2.25 million tonnes of pulverised fuel ash (PFA) over a four-year period will be finalised in the coming months.
As part of the overall scheme, the existing rail connection on the site would be recommissioned to ensure that the primary method of removing any material from the site or receiving deliveries could be by rail, rather than by trucks on local roads.
Banks is hoping to have the energy hub up and running by the end of 2028 if planning approval is granted.