Britain’s biggest battery will be half the size of a football pitch

An electricity firm is installing the biggest battery ever in Britain - half the size of a football pitch - at an onshore wind farm.

The huge lithium-ion battery will store energy generated from the Whitelee wind farm, near Glasgow, which has 215 wind turbines.

The move has been hailed as a ‘significant step forward’ for environmentally friendly power, allowing the site to supply energy even when the wind is not blowing.

At its peak, the wind farm can generate 539 megawatts of electricity, enough to power just under 300,000 homes - or all the households in Glasgow.

Keith Anderson, ScottishPower chief executive, said: 'This is a significant step forward on the road to baseload for renewable energy.

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'We know that renewable energy generation needs to quadruple and we know that onshore wind is the cheapest form of green energy.

'By integrating storage technologies with onshore wind, we are blowing away one of the myths about renewable generation not being available when you need it.'

The battery facility will be constructed on vacant land within the Ardochrig substation compound, which is on the eastern edge of the existing wind farm site.

By siting it there, ScottishPower believes it will make it straightforward to connect the battery to the National Grid.

Installation work is expected to start early next year with the facility due to be up and running by the end of 2020.