The Shrewsbury
Project Details
Lower 48 Energy are proposing to develop a 100 MW, 2hr BESS
Latest Event Details
Event Name
Community Event
Date
Wednesday, 4th December 2024, 3-7pm
Location
Uffington Village Hall,
Church Road,
Uffington,
Shrewsbury,
SY4 4SQ
Documents
The Development
Lower 48 Energy are proposing to develop a 100 MW, 2hr BESS on a site near to the existing Shrewsbury substation.
The 100 MW of BESS will consist of containerised Li-ion battery packs connected together through strings of inverters and transformers. All the transformer connections will be combined in a customer substation and fed to a grid transformer which will be interfaced to the National Grid Electricity Distribution.
The development would also involve stoning an access track to the site, laying of services and drainage infrastructure within the battery compound.
A landscaping scheme will be designed to fit the surrounding landscape character, improve the biodiversity, and provide screening and filtering of the proposed BESS development.
The site is located in a fairly level field but is generally well screened by the canal and railway embankments to the east and south. We are carefully considering the siting of the BESS units, transformers and other equipment so as visual impacts are minimised or mitigated through design and associated landscaping.
The Location
The site is located on level agricultural land in the junction of the A5 and A49, just to the north east. The site is strategically located close (just 300m) to the Shrewsbury substation where the existing infrastructure connects to the National Grid.
Need for the Project
With the UK’s commitment to expand renewable energy sources, including up to 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030, the National Grid is undergoing significant upgrades to accommodate this rapid growth in renewable energy. This creates an opportunity for the Shrewsbury project to store excess renewable electricity during periods of high generation and release it back into the grid when generation is low and demand is high.
The BESS project in Shrewsbury is designed to store and supply 146,000 MWh of renewable electricity annually, which is equivalent to powering approximately 54,000 homes. Through this process, the project is expected to displace around 37,000 metric tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere each year.
When operational, the Shrewsbury BESS will significantly contribute towards local and national decarbonisation targets and help achieve net zero by 2050.
Impact on the Local Area
Based on surveys and analysis the site has limited environmental constraints. The site is well screened from the East and South by the existing embankments.
The BESS layout design has been refined through further environmental surveys, as well as technical inputs from our engineers. The multi-disciplinary approach will be undertaken to produce a layout which optimises the design and minimises impacts on the environment.
Key drivers to the design process are:
- Minimising visual impacts from receptors;
- Minimising impacts on sensitive habitats, and to minimise disturbance;
- Ensuring that nearby residents are not subject to any increased noise effects;
- Minimising the impacts on local residents during construction and paying careful attention to traffic routes and construction timings;
- Minimising impacts on recreational and tourism receptors during construction and operation.
Lower 48 Energy are committed to engaging with the community and other stakeholders at the earliest stages of the project’s development. In this way we will ensure that any disruption is kept to a minimum.
To find out more about our engagement proposals please visit ‘The Community’.
