Muir Of Pert Energy Storage
Next consultation event: 3 – 7pm 8th August, Tealing Village Hall
Why is it needed?
- Scotland has a Target of Net Zero by 2045.
- Renewable energy is intermittent, this means we can’t always rely on it to meet demand.
- Fossil fuel generators coal gas and nuclear make up the difference, as these go offline, we need to be able to meet that demand.
- Energy storage lets us store renewable energy for when it is needed.
- National Grid ESO have estimated we need up to 37GW of energy storage by 2050.
- The Scottish Energy Strategy, published 2018, supports new energy storage capacity. It states that the Scottish Government will continue to support innovation and deployment in storage and to work to accelerate its penetration across Scotland.
Why in this location?
- The land is located around 400m southeast of Tealing Substation and there is available capacity at the grid supply point.
- Across Scotland there are few grid locations that can accept this level of power.
- The site lies to the west of the A90 at Inveraldie and is 5km north of Dundee City.
- The closest dwellings are around 100m south east of the site.
Location plan
What will be on the site?
- Battery storage units.
- Transmission compound.
- Meter building.
- Stores.
- A retention pond.
- Fencing, new hedgerow and planting of native trees.
Site Layout
What equipment will be on site and what will it look like?
Energy Storage Units
- Energy storage cubes.
- Around 3m high.
- Sealed batteries.
Meter Building
- A building will house switchgear, electricity metering, control equipment and health and safety equipment.
- No all night lighting on site
- Dark green colour
- Prefabricated building
HV Equipment
- High Voltage transformer and breakers
Fencing and Security
- New planting, including hedgerows and native trees. The new planting gives an opportunity to create biodiverse habitats in the area and provide visual screening.
- Steel weld mesh security fence with barbed wire.
- Security cameras.
- Fencing to protect the new planting.
Q & A
What is the safety of the batteries and do they hold a fire risk?
The facility would be built to all current safety standards and legislation. As a fixed installation, the system would be designed with multiple safety systems and would be constantly monitored. Fire is a risk for any installation, home or business. The facility will be designed to prevent the circumstances that could lead to a fire and were a fire to occur for it to be contained and extinguished.
What about flood risk?
This site is not in a flood risk area. The site will be designed to catch rainfall from a storm event and release this over time to the burn in line with good practice.
What are the heights of the equipment?
The main area of the site would have equipment under 3 metres high. There would be a fence of 3 metres high around the site, and cameras on poles of 4 metres. New planting of trees is proposed to screen the equipment and fence from surrounding properties. One part of the site would have a transformer and switchgear around 7 metres high.
How will the traffic be managed?
It is not expected that any work would be needed to the existing road beyond forming the entrance into the site. In use the facility is expected to have minimal traffic. Construction Traffic will be carefully planned to minimise impact locally including scheduling and timing deliveries, providing a local contact and ensuring safe and courteous driving.
When would the project be built?
This would likely not be for a number of years. The project would undertake consultations, assessments and surveys, then a Planning consent process, then lead times for the ordering of equipment, finally the National Grid needs to schedule the connection to the grid.
Could the facility be enclosed within buildings?
It is possible to site energy storage equipment within buildings, however all around the world it has generally been found that such equipment works most effectively in the open air. In addition, in this particular site, with modest heights over the majority of the site, the project team believes that visual impact will be reduced with the proposed open air arrangement that can be effectively screened, as opposed to a building which can not, not least due to the size of the building that would be necessary.
Will property prices be affected?
There is no evidence that property prices would be affected by this proposed project.
Can larger trees be used for landscaping around the site?
New planting of predominantly native trees is proposed near the facility. Some of these are proposed as specimen trees that will be larger when planted. The planting would be subject to monitoring and management to ensure it develops. The developer wishes the project to be a good neighbour to the local community and for a landscape design that effectively screens the facility.
Will there be lighting at night?
No. No dusk to dawn lighting is proposed as part of the facility. There would be infrared security lights, and there would be lighting for maintenance personnel to use when undertaking maintenance in the hours of darkness which is expected to be rare as the facility would generally be unstaffed and maintenance would generally happen in daylight.
Will the project produce noise?
The energy storage equipment produces some noise on account of cooling fans and electrical transformers which produce some ‘hum’. This is expected to be at a low level that would not give disturbance at surrounding properties. A technical assessment of noise issues will be produced as part of the project and it is expected that strict noise limits would be imposed on the project by the Council.
How far does 50MW go?
The average Scottish household uses around 3800kWh (kilowatt-hour) of electricity annually. The 50 megawatts (MW) facility would be able to power over 100,000 homes for 2 hours.
LoganPM are engineers for the project and are handling the consultations. Established in 2010, LoganPM has been involved in a great number of renewable and battery energy storage projects all around the country.
