Batteries in Scotland and consenting under Section 36

Until recently, battery announcements in Europe came in tens of MWh. This week's pv magazine edition shows another scale: Scotland approved four projects totalling 1.4 GW, two of them long duration at around 10 GWh, while Zhero and Tesla Energy signed an agreement covering 3 GWh in Italy and the UK advances the Thorpe Marsh BESS, at 1.45 GW and 2.9 GWh.

What the aggregate number does not say is which regulatory stage has been cleared. In Scotland, under the Scottish Government Chief Planner letter of 27 August 2020, a generating station with capacity above 50 MW needs planning permission and also consent under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, and a battery installation is treated as a generating station for that purpose.

There are two sides. Consent obtained removes the largest project risk and unlocks financing and construction contracts. Even so, 1.4 GW approved is not 1.4 GW in operation: the gap to grid connection is where the schedule slips.

What defines this pipeline is the contracted connection date.