APPROVAL has been given for a major battery storage site near Gretna Green.
Scottish Ministers have granted permission to London-based Gresham House Energy Storage Fund for the 13 hectare ‘bess’ development, near Westgill Syke.
It will comprise 384 batteries and run for 40 years, with the capacity to store 456 MW of generated electricity, which can be exported to the grid when it’s needed.
Planning documents show the batteries will be housed in units similar to shipping containers and the complex will connect to the nearby substation.
The Scottish Government’s consent letter published this week states the bess “would provide essential infrastructure that would support storage and distribution of electricity”.
Scottish Ministers point out that such facilities make “a significant contribution to renewable energy generation target and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets by alleviating grid constraints”.
However, they note that there will be impacts on residents locally and loss of amenity through traffic, landscape and visual and noise.
Dumfries and Galloway Council, and the other statutory consultees, raised no objections to the project.
The developers were also deemed to have carried out adequate public consultation and have pledged landscaping and biodiversity enhancements to screen the site and minimise the impact on the surroundings.
Meanwhile, their official website carries a project timeline with an operational date of the end of 2025. However, that was reliant on a planning decision at the end of last year.
