Council chiefs have been urged to work on a coordinated strategy for controversial battery energy storage systems (BESS) as three more plants are proposed for North Yorkshire.
Preliminary details have been submitted to North Yorkshire Council for a BESS plant at Scruton, near Northallerton, another at Shipton-by-Beningbrough, north of York, and a third at nearby Wigginton.
The individual developers have asked council officers if environmental impact assessments are needed ahead of full planning applications being filed.
Plans have recently been submitted for 1GW BESS plants on land at South Kilvington, near Thirsk, and fields near East Rounton, between Northallerton and Yarm,.
The county already has a 100MW BESS plant at Drax, near Selby, which was the country’s largest when it went live last year.
While BESS plans on brownfield sites have proved less controversial, local residents have formed a campaign group to oppose the scheme on fields at South Kilvington, with concerns also raised concerns about the East Rounton proposal during the initial consultation process.
In an open letter to mayors and local authority leaders in North Yorkshire and Teesside, Kevin Foster, leader of the Green Party group on North Yorkshire Council, has called for a coordinated strategy on BESS.
In the letter, Cllr Foster said proposed BESS schemes were emerging at “an astonishing rate”.
“There is an opportunity to develop collective expertise for assessing the complex safety and regulatory issues which will emerge during the planning process for these projects.
“There is an opportunity to support the repurposing of legacy generation sites such as Hartlepool Nuclear Power station and Drax.”
Calling for council chiefs to take part in a regional summit to discuss the plants, the councillor said: “This is a key issue and a big opportunity for our region. These projects are emerging now and in large numbers, so we need to act now.
“I am calling for the mayors of our combined mayoral authorities, and the leaders of North Yorkshire, York City, Middlesborough, Stockton, Hartlepool, and Redcar and Cleveland councils, to work together to realise this opportunity and deliver the best possible outcome for our region from BESS.”
Councillor Malcolm Taylor, who represents the Huby and Tollerton division, where two of the three new BESS plants are sited, said he supported Cllr Foster’s call.
“I think there is a risk we end up dealing with the plans in a very piecemeal way and I think it does need a more holistic approach.
“A coordinated approach sounds eminently sensible to me.”
BESS, which need to be built near high voltage power lines, store energy from renewable sources, like solar and wind, and then release it when the electricity is needed most.
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