RES has welcomed The Highland Council’s decision to consent its 45MW Contullich Battery Energy Storage System, on land adjacent to the Alness substation, approximately 1km north-west of Alness, Scotland.
The consented facility will play an important role in supporting the variable generation of renewable energy technologies by storing energy at times when generation exceeds demand and releasing electricity back to the national grid network when demand exceeds generation.
The project has also been specifically designed to enhance local biodiversity through measures such as the planting of native trees, grassland and scrub areas, resulting in a biodiversity gain of 65.2% in habitat units and 100% in watercourse units.
Milo Amsbury-Savage, development project manager for RES, said: “With the way in which we use, and generate, electricity changing, battery energy storage systems will be a vital part of delivering a reliable, resilient, decarbonised electricity system for the future.
“Alongside the project’s environmental and ecological benefits, RES firmly believes the local communities who host our projects should receive meaningful local benefits from them.
“During our pre-application consultation, we asked the local community for ideas for local benefits and priority projects that they would like to see supported or delivered in their community from the Contullich project, should it receive consent.
“We look forward to continuing these conversations in the coming months as we progress the project.”
There are expected to be opportunities for local contractors and employees to get involved in the construction phase, which is expected to take around 12 months.
RES has developed over 830MW of energy storage projects across the UK and Ireland and currently manage over 600MW of operational storage projects with 24/7/365 monitoring provided from its control centre in Glasgow.