Originally published on Sustainnovate.
By Henry Lindon
The UK will soon be getting a new industrial-scale battery storage project, one of its firsts. It will be constructed at a solar energy project in Somerset.
The new project is part of a new £1 million project exploring the feasibility of utilizing large-scale battery storage technology on the mass scale in the region — especially with regards to the feasibility of using the technology as an accompaniment to large grid-connected renewable energy projects.
The project — being developed by British Solar Renewables and the electricity supplier Western Power Distribution — will be essentially a 640 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery system, located at a 1.5 megawatt (MW) solar energy project at Butleigh in Somerset (owned by British Solar Renewables).
The Innovation and Low Carbon Networks Engineer at Western Power Distribution, Jenny Woodruff, commented: “Finding an economical way to store renewable energy will provide security of energy supply from renewable sources. It will ensure renewables aren’t wasted, as in this case it will allow solar energy to be stored and accessed when required.”
Gordon MacDougall commented as well: “Our experience of delivering almost 80 MW of energy storage globally has given us the ability to provide proven and reliable energy storage solutions, and we are confident that this project will open the door for other opportunities in the UK.”
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