Scotland's new £900 million battery storage facilities will boost resilience during down periods, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport has said.
Michael Matheson hailed Amp Energy’s plans to establish Europe’s largest green energy storage complex across three sites in Scotland, with the first in Ayrshire.
“Amp Energy’s battery storage facility at Hunterston highlights the progress that we’re making towards meeting our ambitions to become a net zero nation by 2045,” said Mr Matheson.
“It is vital that we address the challenge of maintaining system resilience in periods of low renewable output. The increased deployment of storage and flexibility technologies will be vital to meeting this goal.
“Amp’s investment in its Scottish Green Battery Complex will contribute to this objective by enabling the storage of renewable electricity at grid scale for use when required.”
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The cabinet secretary met with Amp Energy’s Ben Skinner to discuss developments at the multi-million-pound Scottish Green Battery Complex, which is due to be operational in 2024.
Hunterston has been selected as the site for phase one of the build, with subsequent sites planned in Kincardine, Fife and Windyhill, outside Glasgow.
Each site will have the capacity to power around 800,000 homes in Scotland, for up to two hours, when required.
It is claimed the facility will become “an important enabler of Scotland’s booming renewable energy sector” and future energy grid.
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Paul Ezekiel, Amp Energy's co-founder and chief investment officer, said: “We were delighted to welcome the Cabinet Secretary to Hunterston today to learn more about Scotland’s renewable energy ambitions and demonstrate the major contribution that Amp Energy’s Scottish Green Battery Complex can make in achieving Scotland’s net zero transition.”
It is claimed the complex will provide reliable grid stability services and power management across the central belt of Scotland, including Glasgow and the Scottish capital.
It will also benefit consumers in reducing energy bills by helping to mitigate the need to pay constraint payments to renewable energy generators – where National Grid ESO has to pay generators to turn off wind farms during periods of low demand – and store renewable energy for later use instead.
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Edinburgh-based Amp X, Amp Energy's proprietary digital energy platform, will utilise its proprietary AI-enabled Asset Life Management architecture, to manage and optimise the state of health of each battery module allowing for optimal operating and dispatch performance while extending the life of the cells used in the complex, it said.
The Scottish Government’s recently published draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan consultation, emphasises the need to grow Scotland’s utility battery storage capacity.
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