Developer Clearstone Energy has secured planning consent for two large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) in England.
Both projects, the 300MW/600MWh Bramford storage project and the 400MW/800MWh Great Oak Energy hub, received planning consent without any outstanding objections from statutory consultees or local fire and rescue services.
The Bramford BESS project covers eight hectares of land 400 metres east of the existing 400kV Bramford substation in Suffolk. By 2030, almost 3GW of wind generation from the East Anglia offshore wind projects will be connected to the same substation.
Clearstone has already had technical clearances from National Grid and said that now it has received consent for the project, it will request an accelerated connection date as part of the implementation of Clean Power 2030 (CP30). The contracted connection date at this stage is 2029.
The Great Oak Energy Hub is in Sussex and the 400MW BESS site, covering 17 hectares, was designed in collaboration with experts at the Knepp Estate, which is host to the BESS, to maximise the project’s sustainability.
Clearstone said that after ‘extensive’ community consultation, the focus on sustainable design and new habitat creation led to high levels of support from the local community, with 73% in favour of the project, and support from the local Parish Council.
The Great Oak Energy Hub is due to be connected to the electricity grid in 2031, but again Clearstone said it will request an accelerated connection date now that planning consent has been secured.
The government’s plan to deliver CP30 requires 27GW of operation BESS capacity in the UK by 2030.
The newly consented projects bring Clearstone’s portfolio of ready-to-build BESS projects in the UK to 1.1GW/2.2GWh. In late 2024, it sold one of its ready-to-build projects to Field Energy, at the time saying it would use the funds from the asset sale to continue to develop its portfolio.
Clearstone successfully negotiated the connection date for the 200MW/800MWh project now owned by Field to be moved forward from 2033 to 2026.
According to Clearstone’s head of development Rob Garratt, conversations with National Grid about grid connections for the two newly approved sites are “already well progressed”.
Garratt said: “We look forward to working with National Grid and the National Energy System Operator to find ways of bringing forward connection dates in support of Clean Power 2030.”
