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20
Aug
The company behind plans to create a battery energy storage system at Scotton has been told it must produce an Environmental Impact Assessment before the scheme can be considered for approval.
Copgrove-based Energyline plans to build the facility – which could store as much as 200 megawatts of energy – on 5.68 hectares (14 acres) of agricultural land off Low Moor Lane, but was told by the council in a screening opinion in February that it would need to produce an EIA.
In June, it then applied for a scoping opinion on the proposals, which it has slightly amended since its last application.
In the decision on this latest application, the North Yorkshire Council’s planning officer said that the application should be accompanied by an EIA “addressing the issues raised in correspondence from the consultees”.
One such consultee was Natural England, which wrote in response to the application:
A robust assessment of environmental impacts and opportunities based on relevant and up-to-date environmental information should be undertaken prior to a decision on whether to grant planning permission.
Supporting documents from Energyline reveal that the facility would consist of 56 pairs of battery energy storage system units – which can look a little like shipping containers – 56 transformer units, two auxiliary transformers, two switch rooms, a 2.4m-high palisade fence, CCTV cameras, access, landscaping and underground cable to Knaresborough substation.
The maximum height of the transformer equipment is approximately 9.5 metres, and the battery units are about three metres high.
The facility would cover three of five fields on the site; the other two fields would be given over to wildflowers.
Energyline is requesting a temporary permission of 40 years, after which the land would be restored back to farmland.
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