Renewable energy firm invests £700k in new energy storage system

A South Yorkshire renewable energy firm has announced it is investing £700k in a new system.

Banks Renewables, owned by North East company The Banks Group, is investing the money in installing a new lithium-ion battery alongside the control building for the Hazlehead wind farm.

The new system, which is roughly the size of a shipping container, would be able to store some of the energy being produced by the three-turbine wind farm and also capture it from the wider National Grid before releasing it at times of high demand.

Batteries also help to limit the amount of equipment network operators need to install and maintain on the system, which are costs that would otherwise appear on energy bills.

The Hazlehead battery would have a peak capacity of 1,000 kilowatts and a duration of 1,500 kilowatt hours, which is enough to fully charge over 35 electric cars.

If it gets the go-ahead, Banks will be aiming to have the new system in place and operational by the autumn, and it is also looking now examining whether similar projects might be undertaken at its other onshore wind farms around northern England and Scotland.

Dunford Parish councillor Allan Pestell, chair of the Hazlehead wind farm community liaison committee, commented: “I am delighted to support this application with the full backing of the members of the liaison committee - the battery housing will be lost in the vegetation and it will have a zero impact on the local environment.”

Mark Rowcroft, technical manager at The Banks Group, added: “The capacity within the connection to the electricity network that we already have at the Hazlehead Wind Farm provides an opportunity to co-locate electricity storage with generation and maximises the value of that infrastructure while reducing operational costs and electricity transmission losses.

“Energy storage systems such as this bring resilience and flexibility to the power network, allowing more renewable generation onto the National Grid in line with our Net Zero 2050 ambitions and ultimately leads to reduced costs to the consumer.

“The Hazlehead wind farm already generates enough clean green electricity to meet the annual energy needs of thousands of homes, as well as creating substantial revenues for its related community benefits fund, and this project will enable us to make further energy advances from this site.

“We hope the members of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council’s planning committee will see the merits of this innovative scheme and that we will be soon able to get on with the work required to bring it online later this year.”