Fife energy storage plan submitted

A planning application has been submitted to build one of the world’s largest battery energy storage sites in Fife.

US power company AES Corporation wants to construct a 50 megawatts (MW) energy storage array on a hectare 500 metres north of Auchtertool.

It will be housed in an agricultural-style building in-keeping with the semirural landscape.

If approved by Fife Council, construction will start this year and be completed in 2018.

Battery storage sites collect surplus electricity from the grid and feed it back into the network at times of high demand.

They relieve pressure on power generation plants and help ensure a balanced system of electricity generation and supply.

The market for utility-scale energy storage systems has grown as a result of falling battery prices and the need for grid stability services.

Containerised storage is relatively quick and easy to install.

Its ability to produce power in milliseconds is increasingly attractive to grid companies.

The market is dominated by lithiumion batteries.

These are discharge rapidly over several thousands of cycles.

In the UK, National Grid’s capacity market auctions and tenders for services offering grid stability have led to a surge in interest.

AES aims to deliver the Fife project using its award-winning Advancion 4, its fourth-generation battery-based energy storage platform.

The company’s first UK advanced, battery-based energy storage base is at Kilroot in Northern Ireland and serves the all-island transmission grid.

Claire Addison from AES UK and Ireland, said the Auchtertool array would be a quiet, no waste or water discharge operation that will be environmentally friendly.

She added: “We are excited about the prospect of bringing to Fife this significant development which should be a key part of Scotland’s low-carbon future.”

Construction jobs will be created but the sites are not labour intensive in operation.

The interior of an AES battery storage site.