Europe’s largest ever battery storage facility has commenced operating in Northern Scotland, The Times has reported.
The site’s location, midway between Inverness and Aberdeen, was carefully selected by Zenobe to take full advantage of an area where huge amounts of wind power are fed into the National Grid from offshore wind farms. The project already has the capacity to store enough power to deliver 200 megawatts of electricity for two hours and is due to be expanded next year, by which time it will be capable of supplying 300 megawatts of electricity; enough for every household in Scotland.
The project promises to alleviate the current limitations to the grid in the area. Up until now the grid has lacked the capacity to transport the power to where it has been needed. As there has been no way of storing the surplus power, the wind farms have actually been paid “millions of pounds to switch off”. The Blackhillock facility will have the capacity to store the surplus generated energy for use at times “when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine”.
Zenobe’s plans for Scotland don’t end there. Another 300 megawatt battery project is in the pipeline in Kilmarnock and a 400 megawatt site is planned at Eccles in the Scottish borders.
All positive signs, although Zenobe’s co-founder, James Basden, has confessed that there are still challenges to be met, with the Electricity System Operator currently preferring to use big power plants rather than multiple small battery storage facilities, due to “software and staffing limitations”.
Notwithstanding the above, the delivery of renewable energy technology in Scotland seems to have arrived at just the right time.
Emily Gosden, ‘Europe’s biggest battery storage project goes live in Scotland’, The Times, 3 March 2025.
