Enzygo has announced that it has successfully secured planning permission for a 200MW battery energy storage system (BESS) on behalf of Energi Generation.
Planning permission was granted by Lancaster City Council for the Heysham BESS project, located in Heysham, Lancashire. The application was submitted in August of last year by Enzygo, a noted planning consultancy, on behalf of developer Energi Generation.
Enzygo worked with Lancaster City Council and was able to secure a 5 Year Implementation planning condition rather than the standard 3 Year Implementation planning condition, while also receiving no objection from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service. Once completed, the development will bring significant biodiversity benefits to the local area, and will deliver an estimated biodiversity net gain of 31.69% across habitat units, as well as delivering a 54.25% net increase in hedgerow units and a 13.10% increase in watercourse units.
According to planning documents, up to 48 BESS containers could be installed on the site, as well as a control room, 132kV substation, CCTV infrastructure, new native hedgerows and a surrounding area of new species-rich grassland.
A final start date for the beginning of construction has not yet been revealed, but sources have noted that it could start as soon as 2027. Once constructed, the site is permitted to operate for up to 40 years, after which time the developers are required to return the site to its former state.
Mark Dickinson, managing director of Energi Generation, stated that he and the firm were very pleased to have secured the planning permission and cited “ the close working relationship between the technical team at Energi and the excellent team of professionals at Enzygo” as a reason for the success of the application. Dickinson also notes that this approval brings Energi Generation’s development pipeline to a total of over 700MW.
The UK has been growing its BESS capacity immensely in recent years. Recent analysis from Solar Media Market Research’s ‘Battery Storage: UK Pipeline & Completed Assets Database’ report found that the UK currently has 55.4GW/117GWh of BESS capacity that has received planning approval in the pipeline, with planning consent awarded to BESS projects totalling 1,590MW/3,179MWh of capacity last month alone. Month to month, the BESS pipeline in the UK has been steadily increasing by 5% each month, analysis has suggested.
