Check the latest public notices in your area – planning, roads and licensing
Plans to create the second-largest Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) facility in the country have been approved for the Isle of Sheppey.
Energy supplier NatPower was granted planning permission by Swale council for the 49-hectare site at Old Rides Farm in Eastchurch on Thursday.
Speaking for the company, Marcus Evans said battery storage stations were essential to improve UK energy security, support the transition to clean energy and help lower energy bills.
He said: “As more electricity is sourced from wind and solar, we need this infrastructure so that we can store power during periods of excess production and release it when the demand is high.”
One of the concerns raised by Eastchurch Parish Council had been around whether the site was a potential fire risk, with the council claiming: “Lithium-ion battery storage carries significant risks of fire and explosion, which are well documented across the UK and internationally.”
Mr Evans said he “appreciated local concerns” but assured villagers that the “highest safety standards” were applied with “multiple levels of protection”.
The planning committee’s chairman, Cllr Andy Booth (Con), said: “There’s a lack of knowledge here with people citing that these types of installations are always blowing up, or always catching fire. That’s just a bit of scaremongering.
“The technology behind lithium battery storage is improving every day, and we need to move on.”
The application is for a series of battery containers set in 15 compounds that will look a bit like large shipping containers. In addition, there will be an electrical substation in the south east corner.
That substation will be 10.2m tall, which planning officer Andy Gambrill said was comparable to the height of agricultural sheds at the adjacent Old Rides Farm.
The substation would be surrounded by a 9.1m high acoustic fence and a further lower security fence.
The battery containers themselves would be 3.1m high.
Access will be via the existing farm access from Leysdown Road.
The containers and substation cover less than half the area of the site, and Cllr Paul Stephen (Swale Independent Alliance) wondered whether that meant the firm had ambitions to expand the plant in future.
But Mr Gambrill was satisfied it was so that the company could plant trees and build bunds to limit views of the containers, as well as to increase the biodiversity net gain from the project, which was substantial.
One issue that was not satisfactorily settled was whether there should be a public right of way (PROW) through the middle of the site.
At present, no official PROW exists, but one has been claimed during the consultation process and investigated by KCC, which is responsible for PROWs.
The committee was told that KCC had decided to make an order determining the footpath the next day, although the order would be subject to a six-week consultation period before it came into effect.
If any objection was raised (by Natpower for example), the matter would need to be considered by a government planning inspector.
Cllr Monique Bonney (Swale Ind Alliance) said that if the public right of way was granted, there would be an immediate clash with the plans the council was about to approve.
She said it would make sense to defer a decision until the issue of the footpath had been settled.
But Mr Gambrill said the council should decide the application on the current situation.
If a footpath was subsequently confirmed, Natpower might have to come back with an amended application or might have to apply for a diversion to the footpath, but, he said: “That risk is on them.”
Cllr Bonney proposed a deferral but she did not get a seconder for her motion.
A motion to approve was proposed by Cllr Booth, seconded by Cllr Hatden Brawn and passed by 11 votes to three, with no abstentions.
There were no public speakers against the application and only two written objections were lodged beside the parish council’s.
Afterwards, Cllr Mike Brown, chairman of the Eastchurch Parish Council planning committee, said he was “disappointed”.
He said: “Part of this site is very close to the homes on the Anne Boleyn estate in the village.
“We maintain there is the potential for a fire that could spread rapidly towards these homes.
“There is also the possibility of noise disturbance, since these sites tend to emit a constant hum.
“Furthermore, in the borough’s Local Plan, there is actually a site allocated for housing on the other side of the road from this battery farm. They will be very close indeed.”
The largest BESS facility in the country is under construction at Thorpe Marsh in Yorkshire. It will have a storage capacity of 1.45GW.
Although the Eastchurch application was not for a temporary period, as some solar farm applications are, the council has imposed a condition requiring that should the technology become outdated and the plant need to be decommissioned at some point in the future, the site will be restored as near as possible to its current state.
