Plans for battery storage system at Sutton Bridge Solar Farm have been approved.
Hollygreen Energy Farm Ltd, part of EDF Renewables, is to build the facility off Centenary Way alongside its current solar farm.
It will consist of up to 48 battery containers and up to 13 transformer units. There will also be a control room, switch room, spares containers, welfare facilities and CCTV cameras.
Permission for the solar farm array was granted in 2021 for it to last 40 years and this most recent application has the backing of the parish council.
“The BESS (storage system) and associated infrastructure is low in scale and located within the site where previously approved solar arrays were located, to the south of the site.
“The proposal, given its modest scale and amount of visible physical infrastructure would not have unacceptable wider landscape and character impact upon the open countryside over what has already been approved,” the report says.
Among a number of conditions applied to the approval is one that states if the site stops generating and storing electricity over a period of 12 months, an early decommissioning scheme will be submitted.
It is also noted that the development is unlikely to create noise or disturbance to others during construction or after, and a Noise Impact Assessment had been submitted by the applicant.
Katie Emmett on behalf of EDF Renewables said: “The development will have no unacceptable effects on the environment or local amenity.
“We’ll build our scheme in a sensitive manner which respects the local community while ensuring are construction project manager is available to address any issues.”
Before councillors unanimously voted it through, Coun Chris Brewis stated that it was not on prime agricultural land while Coun Paul Redgate said: “It’s nice we’ve a project that takes into account solar panels in an area that works for us as an authority and works on the conditions as well.
“This shows, come and work with us, talk to us and lets do something that can achieve great things.
“It’s a breath of fresh air.”
