Alness 45MW Contullich battery storage plant go-ahead welcomed by renewables firm RES
A RENEWABLE energy company has welcomed the go-ahead for a controversial 45MW battery energy storage plant in Easter Ross.
RES made its remarks after Highland Council’s decision to approve its 45MW Contullich battery energy storage system, on land adjacent to the Alness substation, approximately 1km north-west of Alness.
It says the consented facility will play an important role in supporting the variable generation of renewable energy technologies by storing energy at times when generation exceeds demand and releasing electricity back to the national grid network when demand exceeds generation.
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The firm said at the beginning of last year that it had listened to the concerns of the local community before lodging an application.
They say the project has also been specifically designed to enhance local biodiversity through measures such as the planting of native trees, grassland and scrub areas, resulting in a biodiversity gain of 65.2 per cent in habitat units and 100 per cent in watercourse units.
Milo Amsbury-Savage, development project manager for RES, said: “With the way in which we use, and generate, electricity changing, battery energy storage systems will be a vital part of delivering a reliable, resilient, decarbonised electricity system for the future.
"Alongside the project’s environmental and ecological benefits, RES firmly believes the local communities who host our projects should receive meaningful local benefits from them.
“During our pre-application consultation, we asked the local community for ideas for local benefits and priority projects that they would like to see supported or delivered in their community from the Contullich project, should it receive consent. We look forward to continuing these conversations in the coming months as we progress the project.”
As a British company “with a proud history in Scotland”, RES claims a strong track record for working with the local supply chain around its projects and maximising inward investment. There are expected to be opportunities for local contractors and employees to get involved in the construction phase, which is expected to take around 12 months.
RES has been working in the battery energy storage market for a decade and describes itself as designing safe battery energy storage projects using proven Lithium iron phosphate technology. RES has developed over 830MW of energy storage projects across the UK and Ireland and currently manage over 600MW of operational storage projects “with 24/7/365 monitoring provided from our control centre in Glasgow”.
