The UK Government has launched a consultation to determine how best it can alter planning policy frameworks to support developers and businesses seeking to build energy storage facilities in England.
Launched on Monday (14 January), the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) consultation asks developers, investors and other energy storage sector stakeholders how policy can help stimulate the construction of co-located renewable arrays and storage systems.
Specifically, the consultation aims to garner opinions on whether BEIS should alter current regulation surrounding large-scale storage projects with a capacity of 50MW or more. Currently, these projects are required to pass through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime, while smaller developments are processed through local planning frameworks.
The consultation proposes that the 50MW “cap” is removed, allowing all storage projects, regardless of capacity or output, to be sent to local authorities for planning committee approval.
It additionally recommends that storage projects co-located with other forms of generation should only need to pass through the national planning system if the capacity of each aspect exceeds 50MW.
According to BEIS, such moves would spur the uptake of renewables and storage without distorting investment decisions.
“Our findings so far indicate that the 50MW capacity threshold, which triggers the need for a proposal to be brought into the NSIP regime, does not in itself distort storage developers’ sizing and investment decisions to a significant degree,” the consultation document states.
The consultation closes on March 25, with respondents encouraged to submit their evidence online, by email or by post. Any policy changes resulting from the consultation will apply to England only.
Industry reaction
The launch of the consultation has been welcomed by the Renewable Energy Association’s head of policy Frank Gordon, who said: “A future UK electricity system with high energy storage deployment will reduce the need to produce ‘peak’ demand from fossil fuels, accelerate decarbonisation by improving the efficiency of wind and solar generation and reduce the need for costly grid reinforcement.
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