UK energy developer Balance Power won an appeal to gain planning consent for a 50 MW battery-based electricity storage facility on green belt land near Wolverhampton, England.
It comprises 28 containerised battery units, 14 inverters and 14 transformers on open land on the South Staffordshire Railway Walk.
The scheme was originally recommended for approval by the planning officers in December 2021, but South Staffordshire District Council members rejected the application due to its intrusion onto the green belt.
Tamsin Law, the inspector in the appeal, ruled that enough evidence had been provided for the “very special circumstances” required to rule in favour of inappropriate development to the green belt.
She wrote in her judgement: “National Grid Future Energy Scenarios (2021) advises that, currently, the energy storage capacity in the UK is 4GW and by 2050 it is anticipated that 40GW of capacity would be required in order to meet the UK’s target of net zero carbon by 2050.
“The policy support for renewable energy and associated development given in the framework is caveated by the need for the impacts to be acceptable, or capable of being made so.
“Nevertheless, the energy storage benefit of the proposal must be accorded substantial weight. Although modest in scale, the appeal scheme would make a valuable contribution to cutting greenhouse emissions by increasing the opportunity to store energy and this also attracts substantial weight.
“Therefore, and in my judgement, the environmental benefits of the proposal and the fact that the impacts can be made acceptable, are sufficient to outweigh the harm to the green belt.
A spokesperson for South Staffordshire Council said: “Planning permission was refused on 23 December, 2021, due to the potential impact on Staffordshire green belt and potential harm to the landscape.
“However on appeal, in this particular instance, the inspector concluded that very special circumstances existed which justified the inappropriate development on green belt land.”
