A North Yorkshire MP says rural villages are not the place for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) after plans were submitted for a storage site in his constituency.
Harmony SC Ltd has filed a planning application for a 200MW BESS on 5.68 hectares of agricultural land off Low Moor Lane, Scotton, near Harrogate.
The site would include 56 pairs of BESS battery units, as well as transformers, switchrooms, a control room and a 2.4m perimeter fence.
BESS sites store energy from renewable sources and release it back into the grid when demand requires.
Plans have already been submitted for a 49.9MW solar farm on 91 hectares of farmland between Scotton and Brearton.
The solar farm application has attracted criticism from local residents with campaigners from Stop Scotton Solar Farm collecting more than 600 signatures on a petition urging the council to refuse the planning permission.
Supporting documents submitted with the BESS application say the development is “essential infrastructure, delivering much-needed energy security whilst enabling the transition towards net zero”.
They add:
“The BESS will support the National Grid and provide electricity at times when demand rises above generation and will absorb excess electricity when demand is below the level of generation.
“It will contribute towards keeping the UK’s electricity grid stable and resilient to new demands and new sources of energy.”
The report adds that the BESS will also help meet the government’s legally binding commitment to achieve net zero in terms of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and the decarbonisation of the energy sector by 2035.
Tom Gordon, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that BESS had a role to play to help the country achieve net zero.
But he added:
“I do think, however, that putting them in rural villages when we’ve got loads of other places that would be more suitable is not ideal.
“I’m not a statutory consultee on this, but I’ve made comments publicly that this doesn’t feel like it is the most suitable place.”
The MP said that rather than BESS systems near villages, he would like to see more rural off-grid storage and renewable energy in rural areas to make them more self-sustaining.
He added:
“Effectively, a lot of these BESS are almost get-rich-quick schemes where a lot of the time they are actually drawing energy off the National Grid when it’s at a low rate and then sending it back later at an inflated one.
“The idea that they’re actually contributing to net zero is questionable.”
Rachael Mackenzie, chair of Scotton and Lingerfield Parish Council, described the proposed location of the BESS, which is one of several planned alongside the construction of the solar farm as “wholly inappropriate for a number of reasons”.
She added:
“Of significance is its proximity to a nursery, a school and a facility for individuals with autism.
“There is no way to mitigate the potential risks associated the proximity of the construction traffic, particularly given the need for large vehicles on extremely narrow roads, or the ongoing noise emissions from the storage system, and this is of particular concern when we consider the vulnerability of the populations utilising the facilities adjacent to the site.”
A consultation on the BESS application will run until January 11.
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