Planning reform could provide more flexibility for energy storage

Reforming the planning system and financial support mechanisms would encourage more battery and green hydrogen projects to co-locate with offshore wind farms, a report has argued.

By enabling the sharing of existing grid infrastructure, significant savings on time and costs could be achieved and accelerate low-carbon growth, according to the report from RenewableUK.

“Enabling innovative co-located business models will help use offshore wind generation more efficiently and facilitate deployment of both flexible and energy storage assets,” the report concluded.

“Co-location with renewable generation, both onshore and offshore, will help to smooth the variability of renewable generation and reduce curtailment, while maximising the use of grid connection capacity, enabling more renewable power to be delivered to consumers.”