Battery storage site next to school approved despite concerns

Edinburgh Reporter

2 days ago

Scottish Ministers have given the go ahead to a battery storage site less than 100 metres from a school campus despite safety concerns.
Midlothian councillors urged the Scottish Government's Energy Consent Unit to consider the fact the new Battery Energy Storage System, known as BESS, would be so close to the Dalkeith campus which has around 2,500 children and young people in its roll.
But a meeting of the council's planning committee next week will hear the BESS has been approved with no mention of fire risks or the proximity of the school in the Minister's decision.
A report to councillors says: 'The Ministers are satisfied that landscape and visual impacts, impacts on traffic, impacts from noise, coal mining legacy issues, decommissioning, and pollution prevention can all be mitigated via the use of conditions.
'The determination letter does not make any comment on fire risk or the safety of the schools campus.'
Ministers determined the benefits of the new site would be vital to meeting net zero targets
They said: 'Energy storage such as the proposed development provides will be vital in that context to help maintain the balance between supply and demand, to ensuring security of supply, and to reducing the curtailment of renewable generators under grid constraints which would otherwise result in a loss of valuable renewable generation.
'Secure and stable energy supply is a fundamental need of a prosperous economy. As well as the potential economic benefit to local and national businesses during construction, the proposed development would provide further benefit to the economy through its contribution to underpinning energy security and flexibility.'
Midlothian councillors wrote to the Energy Consent Unit, which is responsible for decisions about BESS applications, to raise their concern about it being placed on a 12 hectare field behind the school campus which includes Dalkeith and St Davids High Schools as well as Saltersgate School and Woodburn Primary School.
Councillor Ellen Scott, SNP administration education spokesperson, told a meeting of the planning committee in December that there had been an explosion and major fire in Merseyside four years ago at a battery storage unit where it was reported the temperature on the site rose to 40 degrees Celsius within two minutes.
She said: 'This site is just 70 metres from the edge of the schools campus where 2,500 of our young people, some very young at three years old and some with severe complex needs, are going to be.'
Her comments were supported by Councillor Dianne Alexander who also said the site was over a 'coal seam and gas pipe' She said: 'I just think this is too dangerous for us to allow.'
The proposals for the site include a BESS with a capacity of 200 megawatts with 168 storage containers spread across four compounds. The
containers will be used to house Lithium-ion batteries and the compounds will be hard surfaced and enclosed with three metre high fencing.
The report to councillors next week says: 'The Scottish Ministers in making their determination on the application, have balanced all relevant considerations, decided what weight is to be given to each and reached a view as to where the balance of benefit lies.
'On balance, it is considered that the impacts of the proposed development are acceptable in the context of its benefits, and that the development is supported by relevant planning and energy policies.'
By Marie Sharp Local Democracy Reporter
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