Intergen has been granted consent to build a £200 million battery storage facility at the London Gateway port on the Thames Estuary.
With a generation/storage capacity of 320MW/640MWh – and the potential to expand to 1.3GWh – the battery in Essex is set to become one of the largest anywhere in the world.
The current record holder in the UK is Gresham House’s 50MW/75MWh battery at Thurcroft in South Yorkshire which began operating earlier this month.
The project exceeds the 50MW threshold for being considered a nationally significant infrastructure project and has therefore been awarded a development consent order by the secretary of state at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
InterGen chief executive Jim Lightfoot said: “We are delighted to have been granted consent by BEIS for the Gateway project.
“Our mission is to deliver the flexible electricity solutions that everyone relies on in a low-carbon world, and this project is a major statement of intent.
“We are excited to be entering a new phase in our growth as an organisation and will continue to explore opportunities to develop projects which can support the energy transition.”
Intergen expects construction to begin in 2022 and the battery to become operational two years later in 2024. The Edinburgh-based company has already received planning permission to a 175MW/350MWh battery system at Spalding in Lincolnshire.