Energy storage facility planned for wind farm site

Plans for an energy storage system which would be located on the site of a South Yorkshire wind farm have been submitted to Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.Renewable energy firm Banks Renewables wants to invest around £700,000 in installing a lithium-ion battery alongside the control building for the Hazlehead wind farm, west of Barnsley between the villages of Crow Edge and Carlecotes.The new system, roughly the size of a shipping container, would be able to store some of the energy being produced by the three-turbine wind farm and also capture it from the wider National Grid before releasing it at times of high demand.The battery technology allows for a greater degree of resilience and flexibility to be introduced to the power network.It can capture cheap electricity produced at times of low demand or when wind or solar generation is abundant and hold it until it is needed, thus helping avoid price ‘spikes’ when demand is high.Batteries also help to limit the amount of equipment network operators need to install and maintain on the system, which are costs that would otherwise appear on energy bills. The Hazlehead battery would have a peak capacity of 1,000 kilowatts and a duration of 1,500 kilowatt hours, which is enough to fully charge over 35 electric cars.The Hazlehead Wind Farm generates almost 18,000MW of green electricity every year, which is enough to meet the annual energy requirements of more than 4,500 homes.It is the first time that Banks Renewables, which is part of family-owned North East property and energy business The Banks Group, has looked to invest in co-locating energy generation and storage facilities.If it wins approval, Banks will be aiming to have the new system in place and operational by the autumn.Banks Renewables is an independent onshore wind power owner/operator and currently runs ten wind farms with an installed capacity of 224MW. These include three further wind farms in Yorkshire.