Chapel Lane Battery Storage System
Anesco Limited, is proposing to develop a 49.35MW renewable energy battery storage system on land off Chapel Lane, Great Barr, Walsall WS9 0QV.
- Standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) have become an essential ingredient in how the UK manages and stores electricity, in particular renewable energy.
- Energy Storage is an advanced green technology with the ability to store and release electricity into the grid as required, offering energy security.
- Large battery storage systems are becoming an important component in energy security and peak load shifting. They provide National Grid with a solution to balancing the supply and demand for electricity.
- Battery storage facilities monitor the grid frequency and respond when required, which helps to keep the country’s electrical transmission system stable.
About this project
This proposal involves the construction and operation of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on land off Chapel Lane, Great Barr, Walsall, comprising battery storage units, a substation, and the associated infrastructure, and landscaping. The substation is located on the West side of the site with underground cabling to the grid connection. The application area will be approximately 5 acres and planning permission will be sought for a period of 40 years.
About Anesco
Anesco has long understood the need for energy storage and remains the largest designer and developer of utility scale battery energy storage systems in the UK. Anesco also provides a comprehensive operations and maintenance service, providing confidence that the systems we install perform at the highest level throughout their lifetime.
About battery storage
Battery energy storage systems are used to store generated excess energy which can be fed back into the electricity grid when demand peaks.
National Grid has developed a scheme, Dynamic Frequency Response, in order to maintain stable frequency levels thereby ensuring the electricity grid is more resistant to disruption and heavy demand at peak times, for example in the mornings and evenings; when a power station goes off-line, or an energy intensive industry ‘comes on’ by allowing batteries to discharge the stored electricity to the grid, balancing the frequency and maintaining a stable grid.
In response to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening request, Walsall Council, adopted a screening opinion on the 22nd October 2021 concluding that the proposal is not an EIA development.
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Climate change emergency
The UK government became the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. By this date the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions will be carbon neutral. Battery storage systems can help the fight against climate change by storing excess energy.
Walsall Council is committed to the sustainable development plan for the black country and the use of renewable and low carbon energy has an important part to play, reducing as far as possible the consumption of energy and encouraging the adoption of renewable
Biodiversity Enhancements
Projects of this kind present biodiversity enhancement opportunities. Chapel Lane energy storage facility is not located within an AONB (Area Outstanding Natural Beauty), National Park or considered a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
It is situated away from residential properties limiting views of the development within the local area. A full landscape and visual impact assessment will be completed, and it is anticipated that further planting and hedgerow re-enforcement will be put in place.
The RSPB ‘State of Nature Report’ highlights the severity of the decline in British wildlife. It details that of the 8,431 species that have been assessed using regional Red List criteria, 15% have been classified as threatened with extinction from Great Britain. Climate change is driving widespread changes in the abundance, distribution, and ecology of the UK’s wildlife, and will continue to do so for decades or even centuries to come. One of the biggest causes for the decline of biodiversity according to the report is the loss of hedgerows.
The construction of the Chapel Lane energy storage facility will ensure that appropriate land is planned carefully and maintained throughout the life of the development. This will include the creation of new hedgerow planting, screening the ESS containers from any impacted view. Currently the land is of Grade 3/4 land with very little biodiversity and the creation of hedgerows will not only encourage improved growth but will encourage more wildlife and contribute towards national biodiversity targets.
Anesco will produce a site-specific biodiversity plan will be devised to cover the lifetime of the proposed BESS, working closely with the local community, ecologists, and conservation organisations to ensure that the biodiversity enhancements are most appropriate to the local area. Anesco have an internal stakeholder group named the Anesco Charitable Donations and Community Support that promotes education in the importance of renewable energy and biodiversity, thus providing wider benefits to the local community including seeking to involve local schools with the project to increase awareness of such developments.
Anesco encourages views from residents on the proposal as laid on this webpage
The closing date for responses is 11th October – send your responses to [email protected]
Clean green technology
Supports biodiversity
Protects the grid from disruption
