00:00I'm Heather Donald and I'm Director of Onshore Wind, Solar and Battery and we're here today
00:04at Mount Fryston to witness the start of the construction of what is the biggest battery
00:09in the UK at the moment at 320 megawatts. This is going to be capable of powering half
00:15a million homes for a two-hour period when it's completed early in 2026.
00:20Yeah, so we looked at the project right from the start. We're trying to minimise the amount
00:25of waste. It supports our ASG measures that we're very closely monitored by and it's the
00:31right thing to do for the environment. So we wanted to minimise waste to the project
00:34and the whole stabilisation process that we've been through has meant that we've had to send
00:39nothing to waste. We've actually used a special technique to re-engineer the ground, solidify
00:44it effectively and we're building on top of that. So we've imported stone but we've sent
00:48nothing to waste which is massively beneficial to us.
00:53So battery storage is a really important part of the jigsaw in the drive for Net Zero
00:58and we try and decarbonise the energy system so it's a way of storing energy when the wind
01:03isn't blowing and when the sun isn't shining and it enables us to use that. So it's a really
01:07critical part of that journey to Net Zero. The battery equipment will start arriving
01:12in early December so we've got a fair amount of work to kick off now with screw piling
01:17and foundations etc. The batteries will then start appearing in January and February. Hopefully
01:22everything will be energised towards the end of next year with the project completion
01:26in the early part of 2026. So great for me to meet the team and start to understand some
01:31of the issues that they're facing and just watch some of the progress that they're making.
Comments