ROWS of shipping container-style batteries will be installed on fields north of Swansea to help balance the electricity grid.
The 80 battery energy storage units will store excess electricity produced by intermittent renewable sources of power like solar farms and release it at times of high demand. They’ll be 6m high, 2.5m wide and 2.9m high.
Swansea Council’s planning committee heard the proposal by applicants, London-based FRV Powertek Ltd, will include a substation compound, a small office building, and water tanks in the event of fire. The facility will be built on a 6.75-hectare site off Bryntywod, Llangyfelach, between the M4 and a rail line.
Addressing the committee FRV Powertek managing director Preeti Yardi said electricity had to be imported from neighbouring countries or ramped up by UK fossil fuel power stations when demand exceeded supply. When supply exceeded demand, she said, payments were made to energy generators to curtail production. She said these curtailment payments cost around £1 billion last year and were estimated to rise to £3 billion in 2030 unless electricity storage capacity was increased.
Ms Yardi said over five times more storage capacity needed to be operational in the UK by 2030 than currently. “There is an urgent need for us to build more battery projects as more renewable energy projects come on stream,” she said.
In Wales there is a target to generate 70% of electricity used in Wales by renewable sources like wind and solar farms by 2030.
Cem Kosaner, planning director at Lichfields, which acted as FRV Powertek’s planning agent, said there weren’t any objections to the application and that discussions had been held with Llangyfelach Community Council and Mid and West Fire and Rescue Service among others.
The planning committee heard the development would include new landscaping and planting and that the grazing land itself was deemed poor quality.
Part of the site, however, includes flood zones and also two sites of interest for nature conservation, but the equipment will be raised on platforms and also sit outside the nature conservation boundaries.
A committee report said a “robust” landscape and visual impact assessment on behalf of the applicants had concluded that the project would not cause a significant adverse impact. The report added: “While it is appreciated that the development would alter the site’s character from urban fringe grazing land, it is noted that the majority of the important landscape features, including the boundary trees, hedgerows and hedge banks crossing the site would be retained, and in some cases, reinforced.”
After asking questions about where the electricity flowing to the site would come from and what mine-related investigation work would be needed, the committee voted unanimously in favour of the application. Ward councillor Mark Tribe, who couldn’t attend the meeting, backed the project and said it wouldn’t impact on the nearest residents once built.
