Overview
Cura Terrae undertook an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a proposed Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) with a storage capacity of approximately 94.5 megawatts (‘MW’) of electricity at a site near Farnham, North Yorkshire. The Proposed Development responds to both the UK Government’s and the Local Planning Authority’s support for renewable energy by providing a battery storage system that will help reduce carbon emissions and assist in establishing a greater diversity of energy sources in the UK.
The EIA and associated Environmental Statement (ES) addressed the potential for significant effects on landscape and visual amenity, ecology and transport. In addition, we undertook standalone assessments for heritage, noise, arboriculture, flood risk and drainage and prepared the Planning Design and Access Statement to support the panning application.
The Client
Abei Energy is an Independent Power Producer (IPP) with over 17 years of experience operating throughout Europe and the Americas, developing a wide range of renewable energy projects, including solar, wind, green hydrogen and BESS from site identification and project inception, to permitting, construction and operation.
The organisation focuses on the generation of clean energy from renewable sources, managing the renewable energy value chain from inception through to operation and to and make an important contribution towards national and international net zero goals.
The Challenge
Accelerated delivery
Particular challenges the project faced included:
- Delivering the ES four months ahead of schedule in order to meet the National Energy System Operator (NESO) application window for connection to the National Grid.
- Addressing Local Authority concerns regarding potential impacts on landscape and visual amenity and traffic and transport in the local vicinity.
- Minimising impacts on protected species, habitats and locally designated sites and achieving a net gain for biodiversity.
The Solution
Resources were reallocated and prioritised to enable the accelerated delivery of the EIA with reasonable proportionate assumptions made based on existing survey data where surveys are ongoing. This included close collaborative working with Abei to ensure the design incorporated the requisite mitigation to a sufficient level of detail to allow robust assessment.
The Proposed Development will be designed to respect the character of the landscape and use the existing field boundaries to integrate into the landscape as far as practicable. All existing trees and hedgerows around the Site perimeter will be retained and additional planting will be provided, where necessary, to fill gaps in the existing vegetation. Strategic planting will be implemented to assist in the general screening of the Proposed Development.
The mitigation design also included:
- Concentrating the main structures of the Proposed Development in one part of the Site, confining the extent of built form to as small a footprint as possible, to thus potentially minimise the extent of visual and landscape effects.
- Designing the heights of any built elements to be as low as practical in order to reduce visibility of these elements within the surrounding landscape. Also choosing colours and materials of built elements which blend in with the landscape, thus reducing visual impact.
- The inclusion of a 4m high noise barrier around three sides of the area where the BESS units are located – to the northeast, northwest and southwest.
- Substantially increasing the green buffer along the Site boundary by the provision of mixed native woodland edge planting where space allows, specifically along the west, south and eastern boundaries. Additional larger individual trees are scattered throughout the area to strengthen vegetated boundaries and habitat creation.
- Creating an appropriate strong landscape structure, and enhancing the biodiversity of the Site through strengthening and improving the connectivity of existing wildlife corridors around the Site and providing new habitats within the proposed open spaces. This includes mixed woodland edge planting, mixed native scrub planting, scattered trees and wildflower meadow seeding.
- The inclusion of a minimum 10m buffer from the Proposed Development to the drainage ditches/watercourses around the site and to trees with bat roost potential.
- The inclusion of 2m high deer fencing around the site, rustic in appearance and leaving sufficient gap to ground level to allow movement of small mammals between the Site and wider area.
Client Benefits
Our close collaborative approach with Abei Energy in developing the design and mitigation measures ensured that significant environmental effects were completely avoided. This is set out in a clear and proportionate Environmental Statement, summarised in the Non-Technical Summary, which were delivered in time to allow Abei to meet the NESO connection application window.
Client Testimonial
Abei UK Permitting Manager Stewart Lovesey praised Cura Terrae for our “Great communication, reactiveness to questions / queries, and delivery of products to programme.”, going on to say “The Cura Terrae project team are a pleasure to work with and we will hopefully continue this relationship with projects in the future.”
