Firstway Energy has landed three approvals for a total of 400MW of BESS capacity.
Wedoany.com Report-Feb 12, Battery energy storage system (BESS) developer Firstway Energy has secured planning consent for three BESS developments across England.
The three projects, which combined have a capacity of 400MW, are located in the West Midlands, Lincolnshire, and Cheshire regions of England, and each have a capacity of either 100MW or 200MW.
The Bicker Drove project, a 100MW proposal in Boston, Lincolnshire, will sit on 13.5 hecatres of land. Following the submission of a planning application in September 2024. Boston Borough Council has granted full approval for the project for a 40 year lifespan, after which time the land will be returned to its original agricultural use.
Planning permission was submitted to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council for the 100MW Iley Lane BESS in August of 2023. The development, which will be located on 5.2 hectares of land in Halesowen, Dudley, will feed directly into the nearby Kitwell substation. While the date for the start of construction has not yet been revealed, Firstway Energy has already secured a firm grid connection date of October 2026.
The largest of the projects, the 200MW Mill Hey development, will be located in Capenhurst, Cheshire, and connect directly into the nearby Capenhurst substation. Firstway Energy announced that it had applied for planning consent for the project, set to be located on a 6.2 hectare site in July of last year.
“We are delighted to receive approval for these projects and would like to thank the authorities for recognising the ever-increasing importance and need for energy storage facilities,” said Nathan Stevenson, land director at Firstway Energy.
“We are looking forward to working with the National Energy System Operator (NESO), National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) and SP Energy Networks (SPEN) in accelerating the grid connections as all three sites will benefit from a ‘Protected’ Gate 2A grid connection, “ he said.
BESS on the rise in the UK
The news of this and other recent BESS approvals is a welcome start to 2025 after a somewhat slower year for BESS.
The latest figures from Solar Media Market Research’s UK Battery Storage Project Database Report note that 7GWh of grid scale BESS capacity came online in 2024, with around 1.5GW being completed across the year. This is around 28% lower than the previous year, with the number of projects submitted for planning applications falling by 21% and the MWh capacity applied for also declined by a total of 40%.
However, analysis of this suggests that developers may be focusing on the buildout of projects rather than getting more projects into early development, especially as 2024 saw a record volume of BESS capacity receive approval than any previous year. Currently, there are 101GWh of projects that have been granted planning permission in the UK, with a further over 18GWh of projects under construction.
Meanwhile, the Irish market, which is in an earlier stage of development, saw significant growth last year. Ireland has over 1GWh of capacity online, and capacity grew by 11% last year. Submitted capacity in Ireland skyrocketed in 2024, rising by 63% to hit 7.4GWh, including a 1GWh proposal from developer FuturEnergy for a project using the novel ‘iron-air’ battery technology from US company Form Energy.
