YLEM Energy offshoot Root-Power, which launched earlier this year, has received planning permission for a 12MW/48MWh battery energy storage site in Caterham, Surrey.
The 4-hour duration Tillingdown Farm site, expected to go live in 2025, is located within both the green belt and the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). As such, the development process was “exhaustive”, and Root-Power’s team consulted with AONB officers and local wildlife groups ahead of submitting the planning application in late 2023.
The planning application was supported by an Alternative Site Assessment (ASA) and Greenbelt Justification Report, which ruled out other locations. The report concluded that there were no other suitable locations that fell outside of the AONB or green belt.
The development site is also designated as one of the UK’s 56 ‘Habitats of Principle Importance’ (HPI). As such, Root-Power had to demonstrate that the existing habitat was replaceable before planning the development could progress.
As a result, the 12MW battery energy storage development will be one of the first in the country (and the first for the Tandridge Council, which okayed the project) to be consented on the condition of securing off-site biodiversity units: Root-Power will secure off-site biodiversity units via a habitat bank.
Neil Brooks, Root-Power’s managing director, said: “Due to the project’s unique combination of planning constraints, it has been a challenging project to secure planning consent for and we are pleased we’ve been able to secure this consent via delegated decision, without the need for appeal.”
Root-Power enters UK’s BESS market
Root-Power is the specialised battery energy storage system (BESS) owner-operator offshoot of YLEM Energy, which has a focus on business energy generation. It launched in July this year, with a pipeline of 40 projects ranging in size from 11MW to 100MW.
One of the largest projects in the pipeline, the 100MW/200MWh Granborough Project in Buckinghamshire, has already reached the advanced development stage of the planning process.
The company is showing no signs of slowing, and earlier this month it submitted planning applications for a further five BESS projects with a capacity of 210MW. Wading through the planning process is clearly no issue for the developer, with Brooks commenting that the Tillingdown consent proves Root-Power’s “ability to secure planning permission for renewables projects in the most challenging of environments”.