Index > Achies BESS
Achies BESS
- Name
- Achies BESS
- Ward
- Wick And East Caithness
- Site
- Land 500M West Of DC Site Spittal Sub Station Halkirk
- THC Reference
- 25/02382/S36
- ECU Reference
- ECU00006111
- Applicant
- S4N Spittal Limited
- Proposal
- Achies BESS - Construct and operate a battery energy storage system (BESS) development and associated infrastructure, with a generating capacity of approximately 162MW. This case will be determined by the Energy Consents Unit. Please visit Energy Consents Unit at https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationSearch.aspx?T=2 using reference number ECU00006111
- Deadline
- 01/08/2025
- Status
- Under Consideration
- Capacity BESS
- 162 MW
- Comment
- This is yet another large BESS for Spittal, and once again the cumulative impact is not properly assessed. Tellingly the visualisations provided don't show any of the other projects in the area. In particular the cumulative fire risk is very worrying.
BESS are very problematic because of safety aspects. Potential hazard in particular are: remote surveillance breaking down, fire hazard, toxic smoke, contaminated water runoff, limited resources of local Fire and Rescue Service, the risk of a wildfire due to fire spreading to peat, degraded peat or woodland near a site, criminal attacks.
Recent fires in Essex and Aberdeenshire have shown how problematic such fires are. A lot of water will be used to cool down units not yet on fire to prevent them from catching fire. This produces toxic water runoff. It will not be possible to extinguish the unit or units on fire. They will have to just burn out, can re-ignite after they seem extinguished, and are producing large amounts of toxic vapor and smoke while burning.
Achies BESS is planned next to existing and planned substations just outside the village of Spittal. A fire could easily spread to the substations and would put the electricity transmission to and from Caithness at risk. The toxic smoke and vapour would affect the people in and around Spittal and Halkirk.
The cumulative impact of all the projects in the area is not properly assessed. Incidents will be more likely with more developments, roads will be busier from all the construction traffic making it harder for emergency services to get there, emergency services will be even more stretched than they already are, all this will make it more likely for incidents to grow bigger and graver and last longer, road blocks due to incidents will make the other roads even busier potentially leading to accidents that wouldn't have happened otherwise and will have to be attend to by the already stretched emergency crews, etc...
Another problematic aspect is that they are often advertised as a solution to windless days, when in fact all they offer are short term storage. These BESS will at most be able to deliver their declared capacity for a couple of hours. They do not offer long term storage. BESS should be located near consumers to balance the grid short term. NESO have reinforced this with their recently published caps. In Scotland more than enough BESS have been approved already to meet the targets set by NESO. Anything over the target will not add any value, it will only add more risk.
- Send objection to
- The Highland Council, Energy Consents Unit
All information, plans and images taken from the corresponding application.