Surrey Hills Green Belt to get battery big enough to power the whole town
Plans for a new energy storage site have been approved in the Surrey Hills. Council officers judged the local and national need for storing renewable energy to combat climate change outweighed the harm to the Green Belt.
The project, set to be built on the green belt in Caterham, will store enough energy to power around 24,000 homes - the equivalent of the whole Caterham town.
Run by Root-Power, the site will store excess electricity from renewable sources like solar or wind power. The battery storage site would provide standby, emergency electricity for National Grid in times of high electricity demand or when renewable energy projects are unable to fulfil demand.
Part of the London Green Belt and Area Of Natural Beauty (AONB), the undeveloped land of shrubs and natural vegetable trees will see concrete slabs being built to house the electrical equipment. Installed onto the site will be 12MW modular battery units to store renewable energy, power conversion units, a transformer compound, a substation, a switch room, and site office- all surrounded by a 2.4m high mesh welded security fence.
Read more: Rival supermarket to move 0.3 miles from Surrey Tesco as court challenge fails
Tandridge District Council (TDC) officers judged the need for renewable battery storage as “special circumstances” which “clearly outweigh the harm” of the development on the Green Belt. Applicant Root-Power said: “[Battery storage] is one of a number of mechanisms that will reduce electricity bills for UK consumers over time.”
Next to the Caterham Bypass, the boundary security fencing will be surrounded by a hedgerow to hide the appearance of the development. No large trees will need to be removed from the approved development, but TDC tree officer asked if the small trees and shrubs could be compensated for. Security lighting and CCTV cameras will also be installed on the 0.32ha site.
Supplying electricity to the National Grid at times of high demand or low generation by renewable energy, the equipment will not be in continuous use. The battery storage may be called upon for a few minutes at a time or up to several hours depending on the need. Planning documents state that although the site itself is not a low carbon or renewable technology, the battery storage site will support the transition to net zero and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
With a maximum height of up to 4.4m, officers said the “relatively low height” of the development will not have a bad impact on the Green Belt or AONB. The applicant also argued that due to the existing mature woodland surrounding the site, the security fences and concrete slabs will not be noticeable.
Planning documents state that battery storage sites can only be built when it is in the catchment area of a grid which has capacity, which has been identified at Caterham Primary substation.