Green light for world’s biggest battery storage plant
A proposal to build the world’s biggest battery storage project near Manchester has won planning permission.
The Trafford battery energy storage system is intended to have the capacity to store just over two gigawatt-hours of energy, enabling it to supply the equivalent of over 500,000 homes with power for up to two hours.
It is expected to cost about £750 million to build, according to Carlton Power, the developer, which is seeking to secure investors for the project. It said it was in “advanced talks with companies to finance, build and operate” the plant, which received planning consent from Trafford council last week.
Subject to securing investment, Carlton Power said construction could begin early next year and the battery could go into operation by late 2025.
The company is an independent group based in North Yorkshire that develops energy infrastructure, typically selling projects or a majority stake in them before construction. It has built several gas-fired power plants, but now is focused on developing the Trafford Low Carbon Energy Park on the site of the old Carrington coal plant, eight miles south of Manchester.
The ability to store electricity will be ever more important as Britain builds more intermittent renewable power sources such as wind and solar farms.
Carlton Power also has planning consent for a 200-megawatt green hydrogen scheme at the site, using renewable electricity to make the clean-burning gas through electrolysis, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Keith Clarke, 62, founder and chief executive of Carlton Power, said development of the site would bring “significant economic benefits to the Greater Manchester region and help to deliver the regional net-zero targets.”
