Europe's largest battery site goes live in Scotland, boosting UK energy grid

[Skye Jacobs]

What just happened? Zenobē, an owner and operator of grid-scale batteries on Britain's transmission network, has launched commercial operations at Europe's largest battery site in Blackhillock, Scotland. This project marks a crucial milestone in the nation's clean energy transition by addressing grid congestion and enhancing the reliability of renewable power sources.

The Blackhillock site is being implemented in two phases. The first phase, which just went live, has a capacity of 200MW. The second phase, scheduled for 2026, will add an additional 100MW, bringing the total capacity to 300MW/600MWh. This is equivalent to powering more than 3.1 million homes for two hours – more than the total number of households in Scotland.

A number of cutting-edge technologies are working in concert to provide the necessary advanced energy storage and grid stability services at the site. The facility uses Wärtsilä's Quantum energy storage system technology, which is managed by the GEMS Digital Energy Platform for remote monitoring, operation, and diagnostics. This advanced control system is complemented by SMA's grid-forming inverters, which provide 333MW of inertia and 84 MVA of short circuit capacity.

The grid connection infrastructure comprises 62 medium voltage stations supplied by SMA, ensuring efficient power distribution and management. To facilitate the integration of this massive battery system with the broader power grid, the facility employs two 180MVA transformers supplied by GE Grid Solutions.

Positioned between Inverness and Aberdeen, the Blackhillock battery site aims to alleviate grid congestion from major offshore wind farms, including Viking (443 MW), Moray East (950 MW), and Beatrice (588 MW).

The project will also help achieve the U.K. government's goal of a net-zero power grid by minimizing wasted clean energy. "We are wasting no time in delivering clean power by 2030, with the Blackhillock battery site marking the latest milestone in delivering our mission to become a clean energy superpower," said Energy Minister Michael Shanks.

Over the next 15 years, the site is projected to save consumers more than £170 million ($218 million) and prevent approximately 2.6 million tonnes of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere by integrating more wind power into the transmission network.

The project is the result of collaboration between several key players in the energy sector. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) provided the necessary grid connection, while EDF Wholesale Market Services will serve as the Route to Market provider through its Powershift trading platform.

The Blackhillock site is not only Europe's largest battery but also the world's first to provide stability services to the National Energy System Operator (NESO), making it the first transmission-connected battery in the world to offer such services.

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Europe's largest battery site goes live in Scotland, boosting UK energy grid

 

[Achaios]

Ofc I like "Zenobe" (Zenobia was an Hellenistic Queen of some City-State of the Imperial Era ca AD 280) but, um, Britain isn't in Europe and hasn't been in Europe since, uh, what the Brits christened "Doggerland" became flooded and separated the island from Europe like 8K years BP.

The Brits themselves would uh "utter several Saxon monosyllables" as they themselves put it if you call them European and they recently *insert British phlegmatic expression* dumped on the EU and made sure that every single Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian and other EU professionals were permanently banished from the Island and replaced with Pakis and Banglas and Nigerians and the like.

So I dunno man, calling them European is a stretch.

P.S.: To "make matters worse" as they say, Polish fools and Czech fools and others even a number of Greeks fought with the RAF during the Battle of Britain and later. And all these were driven from the island to be replaced by Pakis b/c Pakis as they said were uh "Commonwealth". I kid thou not. "Very British, much European".

 

[scoffer]

I suggest uh that you um try to get your uh history straight duh....Zenobia was a uh queen of a um Roman colony in Syria...duh urm.........

Jesus...these f@#$%ng forums get worse by the day..........uh um ...........

 

[WestleyTDPR]

Ofc I like "Zenobe" (Zenobia was an Hellenistic Queen of some City-State of the Imperial Era ca AD 280) but, um, Britain isn't in Europe and hasn't been in Europe since, uh, what the Brits christened "Doggerland" became flooded and separated the island from Europe like 8K years BP.

The Brits themselves would uh "utter several Saxon monosyllables" as they themselves put it if you call them European and they recently *insert British phlegmatic expression* dumped on the EU and made sure that every single Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian and other EU professionals were permanently banished from the Island and replaced with Pakis and Banglas and Nigerians and the like.

So I dunno man, calling them European is a stretch.

P.S.: To "make matters worse" as they say, Polish fools and Czech fools and others even a number of Greeks fought with the RAF during the Battle of Britain and later. And all these were driven from the island to be replaced by Pakis b/c Pakis as they said were uh "Commonwealth". I kid thou not. "Very British, much European".

We Brits are most definately still Europeans, the english channel is pretty much a very big river (with a tunnel under it) and we are on the European continental shelf. Plenty of Polish, Czechian etc. nationals are still living here despite the desires of the *****s who voted to shoot ourselves in the foot with leaving the EU (which recent polling shows the vast majority of people see as a mistake). Your guy Trump is doing a fantastic job convincing us that closer intergration with our European allies is essential!

Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims fought alongside us in WWII as well as Canadians, Australians, Poles, Chechians, Greeks and many others, while we waited for the yanks, and I'm grateful to them all.

 

[Achaios]

I suggest uh that you um try to get your uh history straight duh....Zenobia was a uh queen of a um Roman colony in Syria...duh urm.........

Jesus...these f@#$%ng forums get worse by the day..........uh um ...........

"Zenobia" is a Greek name (female form of the male name ZENON and NOT a Syrian or Arabic one) and in her "Roman Colony" Greek was the lingua franca.

Educate yourself.

Etymology, origin and meaning of the name "Zenobia" by etymonline

"the force of Zeus," from Zen, collateral form of Zeus, + bia "strength, force," cognate… See origin and meaning of zenobia.

www.etymonline.com

 

[DanteSmith]

Europe's largest battery maker recently went bankrupt after receiving tons of subsidies... next question.

 

[SirDigby]

Ofc I like "Zenobe" (Zenobia was an Hellenistic Queen of some City-State of the Imperial Era ca AD 280) but, um, Britain isn't in Europe and hasn't been in Europe since, uh, what the Brits christened "Doggerland" became flooded and separated the island from Europe like 8K years BP.

The Brits themselves would uh "utter several Saxon monosyllables" as they themselves put it if you call them European and they recently *insert British phlegmatic expression* dumped on the EU and made sure that every single Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian and other EU professionals were permanently banished from the Island and replaced with Pakis and Banglas and Nigerians and the like.

So I dunno man, calling them European is a stretch.

P.S.: To "make matters worse" as they say, Polish fools and Czech fools and others even a number of Greeks fought with the RAF during the Battle of Britain and later. And all these were driven from the island to be replaced by Pakis b/c Pakis as they said were uh "Commonwealth". I kid thou not. "Very British, much European".

Europe is the continent and we are still very much European no matter how much the Brexit voters disagree. Europe is the geographic area that nothing short of massive seismic activity could undo, the EU however is an economic and political union formed of a majority of countries within Europe

 

[ThomasTECH]

So British battery farm to go ahead and stop wasting Green energy created but then oops wasted, they won't waste it anymore they claim, they will put what would have been wasted in this battery farm. Then the battery farm will be tapped for energy consistently, great plan! Wait until they see the bill to maintain the battery farm, lol. They will need to get a 3rd slave country to pay that bill! Not to mention the costs to replace those big batteries when they die and the materials to create those batteries have the highest inflation of any product at the moment.

 

[daffy duck]

And here I came to read about batteries and got some warped history lesson.

TECHSPLOT!

 

[scoffer]

"Zenobia" is a Greek name (female form of the male name ZENON and NOT a Syrian or Arabic one) and in her "Roman Colony" Greek was the lingua franca.

Educate yourself.

Etymology, origin and meaning of the name "Zenobia" by etymonline

"the force of Zeus," from Zen, collateral form of Zeus, + bia "strength, force," cognate… See origin and meaning of zenobia.

www.etymonline.com

Well, according to my research, her native name was Bat Zabbai. She only used the Greek version of her name in deference to her Greek subjects. No doubt because due to their arrogance, they couldn't speak any other language other than Greek -hence the need for the region's diplomatic language. As you no doubt know, the Greeks considered anyone who didn't speak Greek to be a barbarian. A bit ironic, since they couldn't go any length of time without killing each other in their local wars. Perhaps THEY needed to '"educate" themselves.

 

[scoffer]

And here I came to read about batteries and got some warped history lesson.

TECHSPLOT!

How does it go? "Educate yourself"...................LOL........... (sorry -just messing with you).

 

[gdavid65]

So British battery farm to go ahead and stop wasting Green energy created but then oops wasted, they won't waste it anymore they claim, they will put what would have been wasted in this battery farm. Then the battery farm will be tapped for energy consistently, great plan! Wait until they see the bill to maintain the battery farm, lol. They will need to get a 3rd slave country to pay that bill! Not to mention the costs to replace those big batteries when they die and the materials to create those batteries have the highest inflation of any product at the moment.

Battery farm maintenance costs a substantial amount less to maintain each year then say a nuclear power plant, gas fired power station, or coal plant. They just sit there and do their thing without large turbines, toxic emissions, water consumption, leaks, and kilometers of pipes to replace each year. Most of the waste from those legacy fuel generators are significant, and extremely dirty to recycle, if not impossible. They also require the same, if not much more, rare earth minerals, and ongoing minerals and transport costs, that any battery plant does. Plus modern batteries do not require much in the way of "3rd world" materials such as Cobalt. Your data is several years out of date.

Lithium prices have been dropping heavily for the last couple of years, and the price to replace them has been getting cheaper by the month. However the price for fossil fuels such as gas, coal, or nuclear, keeps going up and up.

 

[Underdog]

Lithium getting cheaper? I hadn't heard that.
I need to get my news from Facebook.

 

[ThomasTECH]

Battery farm maintenance costs a substantial amount less to maintain each year then say a nuclear power plant, gas fired power station, or coal plant. They just sit there and do their thing without large turbines, toxic emissions, water consumption, leaks, and kilometers of pipes to replace each year. Most of the waste from those legacy fuel generators are significant, and extremely dirty to recycle, if not impossible. They also require the same, if not much more, rare earth minerals, and ongoing minerals and transport costs, that any battery plant does. Plus modern batteries do not require much in the way of "3rd world" materials such as Cobalt. Your data is several years out of date.

Lithium prices have been dropping heavily for the last couple of years, and the price to replace them has been getting cheaper by the month. However the price for fossil fuels such as gas, coal, or nuclear, keeps going up and up.

You have a basic understanding of how electrical power is generated I'll give you that, and hopes this plan will workout, I see your optimism. However, even the advanced viewpoint would struggle here, the professional would be somewhat better, the industry leading would say what I say because it was all accurate. You don't want batteries for grid level production, they were not fundamentally designed for that. This will become clear as this design is put to test in production.

 

[TheElder]

I suggest uh that you um try to get your uh history straight duh....Zenobia was a uh queen of a um Roman colony in Syria...duh urm.........

Jesus...these f@#$%ng forums get worse by the day..........uh um ...........

Ah, a voice of sanity. At onetime the forum was an exchange of technological ideas but now has been reduced to a social media political site of off topic US vs THEM.

 

[Bernmeister]

Europe's largest battery maker recently went bankrupt after receiving tons of subsidies... next question.

The UK battery factory never got of the ground. So where did all these batteries come from, China?