Norfolk MP seeks assurances over safety of Rushall battery farm
The Green Party co-leader said he wanted to know how fire risks could be managed if plans for one of Europe's largest battery storage sites were approved.Developers want to install more than a thousand battery containers on land on the outskirts of the small village of Rushall, near Diss in Norfolk.Whilst the company behind the plan - Elmya - has said safety measures will be in place, residents fear the site could catch fire.MP Adrian Ramsay – whose Waveney Valley constituency includes Rushall – said he did not "want to scaremonger" but would be meeting with Norfolk's fire chief to discuss their concerns.
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are used to hold electricity generated by renewables like solar and wind farms, which can then be put into the grid when needed.But the lithium used in the batteries can cause explosions if it overheats.A fire at a small BESS site in Liverpool in 2020 took fire crews 59 hours to extinguish, whilst a blaze at a huge site in California was left to burn on the advice of fire experts.
Ramsay said he would speak to Norfolk's chief fire officer about the proposed site at Rushall, as well as one that would be part of the East Pye solar farm.He said he wanted to know how fire risks could be managed and assessed, and how fire crews might access remote, countryside sites:"I don't want to scaremonger on that at all, but I do take the questions residents are raising seriously."
Asher Minns, from the Tyndall Centre For Climate Research at the University of East Anglia, said data on BESS sites across the world "wasn't great" but he believed the risk of fire was "very low"."There's better [safety] guidelines coming out all the time," he added.Elmya – which has yet to submit its plans for the site at Rushall – said it would have "advanced monitoring, early fire detection, and suppression systems".Development director James Innes insisted the project's safety was "paramount" and the company would be "following National Fire Chiefs Council guidance".A Norfolk Fire and Rescue spokesperson said: "We continue to proactively work with site designers and operators of battery energy storage systems to help them improve both their site designs, and the accessibility for firefighting. "This is to reduce and mitigate for the likelihood of any fire on their premises."
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