Battery Storage Guidance Note 1 Battery Storage Planning
Leoma Cianchetti
Battery storage is expected to play an important role in the energy transition, allowing the storage of electrical energy from renewables for later use, and helping to balance grid load. This publication provides guidance covering various aspects of planning a battery storage facility. It provides an overview of battery types, planning regulations in the UK, and information on safety issues that should be considered during planning and risk assessments. It is intended to be concise and reflect current practice and knowledge in this fast-changing sector.
This publication provides guidance on how to respond to BESS fires. It represents the 'current state' of knowledge (in 2019), but also identifies gaps in knowledge. The guidance covers primarily non-domestic battery installations, although the guidance may also generally be applicable to smaller, domestic-scale incidents. It provides an overview of the fire risk of common battery chemistries, briefly describes how battery fires behave, and provides guidance on personnel response, managing combustion products, risks to firefighters, pre-fire planning, and fire-aftermath.
Although much of this guidance is generally applicable to other battery chemistry types, this guidance is of particular relevance to fires involving Lithium-ion (Li-ion) chemistries, except where otherwise noted.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) provides clarity around the eligibility of power conditioning and transfer equipment like subsea export cables used in offshore wind projects, as well as certain power conditioning equipment located in onshore substations.
The NPRM also includes proposed rules around the eligibility of standalone battery storage for the ITC. This reflects a critical provision in the Inflation Reduction Act to help support the development of utility-scale, long-duration energy storage, which is vital to ensuring reliability as utilities transition to renewable sources like wind and solar.
Additionally, the NPRM includes proposed rules around the inclusion of costs of interconnection-related property for lower-output clean energy installations, including the costs of upgrades to local transmission and distribution networks that are necessary to connect the clean energy. These modifications reflect another critical change in the Inflation Reduction Act, with the goal of reducing the costs and avoiding delays for new, smaller clean energy installations to connect to the grid and start producing power.
May 31, 2023: U.S. Departments of Treasury and Energy Release Additional Guidance on Inflation Reduction Act Programs to Incentivize Manufacturing and Clean Energy Investments in Hard-Hit Coal Communities
September 27, 2023: U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Energy, IRS Announce Date for Opening of Applications for Investing in America Program to Spur Clean Energy Investments in Underserved Communities
Increasing the amount of energy from renewable and low carbon technologies will help to make sure the UK has a secure energy supply, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow down climate change and stimulate investment in new jobs and businesses. Planning has an important role in the delivery of new renewable and low carbon energy infrastructure in locations where the local environmental impact is acceptable.
The National Planning Policy Framework explains that all communities have a responsibility to help increase the use and supply of green energy, but this does not mean that the need for renewable energy automatically overrides environmental protections and the planning concerns of local communities. As with other types of development, it is important that the planning concerns of local communities are properly heard in matters that directly affect them.
Local and neighbourhood plans are the key to delivering development that has the backing of local communities. When drawing up a Local Plan local planning authorities should first consider what the local potential is for renewable and low carbon energy generation. In considering that potential, the matters local planning authorities should think about include:
Community initiatives are likely to play an increasingly important role and should be encouraged as a way of providing positive local benefit from renewable energy development. Further information for communities interested in developing their own initiatives is provided by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Local planning authorities may wish to establish policies which give positive weight to renewable and low carbon energy initiatives which have clear evidence of local community involvement and leadership.
Neighbourhood plans are an opportunity for communities to plan for community led renewable energy developments. Neighbourhood Development Orders and Community Right to Build Orders can be used to grant planning permission for renewable energy development. To support community based initiatives a local planning authority should set out clearly any strategic policies that those producing neighbourhood plans or Orders will need to consider when developing proposals that address renewable energy development. Local planning authorities should also share relevant evidence that may assist those producing a neighbourhood plan or Order, as part of their duty to advise or assist. As part of a neighbourhood plan, communities can also look at developing a community energy plan to underpin the neighbourhood plan.
There are no hard and fast rules about how suitable areas for renewable energy should be identified, but in considering locations, local planning authorities will need to ensure they take into account the requirements of the technology and, critically, the potential impacts on the local environment, including from cumulative impacts. The views of local communities likely to be affected should be listened to.
When identifying suitable areas it is also important to set out the factors that will be taken into account when considering individual proposals in these areas. These factors may be dependent on the investigatory work underpinning the identified area.
Identifying areas suitable for renewable energy in plans gives greater certainty as to where such development will be permitted. For example, where councils have identified suitable areas for large scale solar farms, they should not have to give permission outside those areas for speculative applications involving the same type of development when they judge the impact to be unacceptable.
In the case of wind turbines, a planning application should not be approved unless the proposed development site is an area identified as suitable for wind energy development in a Local or Neighbourhood Plan.
Suitable areas for wind energy development will need to have been allocated clearly in a Local or Neighbourhood Plan. Maps showing the wind resource as favourable to wind turbines or similar will not be sufficient.
Policies based on clear criteria can be useful when they are expressed positively (ie that proposals will be accepted where the impact is or can be made acceptable). In thinking about criteria the National Policy Statements published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero provide a useful starting point. These set out the impacts particular technologies can give rise to and how these should be addressed.
Local planning authorities should not rule out otherwise acceptable renewable energy developments through inflexible rules on buffer zones or separation distances. Other than when dealing with set back distances for safety, distance of itself does not necessarily determine whether the impact of a proposal is unacceptable. Distance plays a part, but so does the local context including factors such as topography, the local environment and near-by land uses. This is why it is important to think about in what circumstances proposals are likely to be acceptable and plan on this basis.
There is an important contribution to be made by planning that is independent of the contribution from other regimes such as building regulations. For example, getting the right land uses in the right place can underpin the success of a district heating scheme. Similarly, planning can influence opportunities for recovering and using waste heat from industrial installations.
Planning can provide opportunities for, and encourage energy development which will produce waste heat, to be located close to existing or potential users of the heat. Planning can also help provide the new customers for the heat by encouraging development which could make use of the heat.
Information on local heat demand is published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to assist planners and developers in identifying locations with opportunities for heat supply. See the national heat map and the UK combined heat and power (CHP) development map. This information will be supplemented in future by further work, including detailed mapping, on the potential for combined heat and power and district heating and cooling.
Renewable energy developments should be acceptable for their proposed location. In addition to the factors that should be considered regarding the acceptability of a location for any form of renewable energy development there are particular considerations for the following technologies: hydropower, active solar technology (photovoltaics and solar water heating), solar farms and wind turbines. Also, local planning authorities may wish to consider how planning conditions or planning obligations can mitigate the impacts described.
Planning applications for hydropower should normally be accompanied by a Flood Risk Assessment. Early engagement with the local planning authority and the Environment Agency will help to identify the potential planning issues, which are likely to be highly specific to the location. The Environment Agency has published advice on environmental protection for new hydropower schemes.
Active solar technology, (photovoltaic and solar water heating) on or related to a particular building is often permitted development (which does not require a planning application) provided the installation is not of an unusual design, or does not involve a listed building, and is not in a designated area.Where a planning application is required, factors to bear in mind include:
c80f0f1006