New battery storage project to be installed in Wales

An application for a new battery storage project in Wales has been approved by a local authority.

Rows of shipping container-style batteries will be installed in the fields off the M4, Llangyfelach, Swansea, to help balance the electricity grid.

The 80 battery energy storage units will store excess electricity, produced by renewable sources of power like solar farms, and release it at times of high demand.

Electricity demand

Swansea Council’s planning committee heard the proposal by applicants, London-based FRV Powertek Ltd.

The project will include a substation compound, a small office building, and water tanks in the event of fire.

The battery storage units will be 6m high, 2.5m wide and 2.9m deep, built on a 6.75-hectare site off Bryntywod, Llangyfelach, between the M4 and a rail line.

Addressing the committee, Managing Director of FRV Powertek, Preeti Yardi, said that currently 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, payments were made to energy generators to curtail production”, she said.

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.

‘Urgent’

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, 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.

Nature concerns

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.

This equipment will be raised on platforms, and will 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.”

The committee voted unanimously in favour of the application.