Rolls-Royce has begun construction on a large-scale battery energy storage facility in Falkirk, Scotland, marking the company’s first such project in the United Kingdom, the company stated.
The facility, being delivered under an engineering, procurement, and construction contract for Voltaria Helios Energy Storage, will have a capacity of 86 MWh and an output of 43 MW, which Rolls-Royce says is equivalent to the demand of around ten thousand homes. The system is expected to connect to the grid in 2026 and become operational in 2027, with Rolls-Royce maintaining it for 15 years.
The project will use the company’s mtu EnergyPack system, storing energy during periods of high renewable output and feeding it back into the grid at times of peak demand. Rolls-Royce said the facility would also help reduce the need to curtail wind generation during periods of oversupply.
Nigel Jefferson, CEO of Voltaria, was quoted as saying: “Rolls-Royce were selected because we were impressed by their commercial and technical offering, as well as their technical advice and engagement in the run-up to the decision, and their 15-year full-wrap long-term service agreement.”
He added: “Rolls-Royce has also leveraged the Scottish supply chain, which is great to see.”
Andreas Görtz, President of the Mobile & Sustainable business unit at Rolls-Royce Power Systems, said: “As a European turnkey integrator, we foster the energy transition by delivering storage solutions – from system design and EPC delivery to intelligent control and lifecycle support.”
While Scotland produces an abundance of wind energy, the transmission infrastructure is currently insufficient to move this power to high-demand areas in England. So why is Rolls-Royce building battery storage North of that bottleneck? Wouldn’t it need to be on the side of the high demand to reduce peak prices?
As Falkirk is centrally placed between Edinburgh and Glasgow it might be argued that developing a battery storage facility there is adding to the node points needed to create future flexibility in any National infrastructure.
I suppose that could be a reason… But looking where we are reading this, I suspect Babcock’s Shipyard up there might be a likely candidate for why this has been chosen to be situated at the “bottleneck”.
Grangemouth refinery is next door to Falkirk as a potential customer also.
The best place for storage is before the bottle neck, that’s where the electricity is the cheapest and it allows for a more steady supply and hence efficient use of the energy transmission infrastructure.
A more steady supply if you are Scottish, which isn’t to be sneezed at, I suppose. Unfortunately, with the fakakta way we price electricity, only the highest cost matters for price. As I understand it, if we need gas generation anywhere in the UK, we pay through the nose everywhere. So the Scots may have a smoother supply, but it won’t be cheaper. Only reducing the number of days when gas generation (firm, flexible) is needed will lower the price. For that we need increased cheap supply South of the border, or a wholesale revamp of the electricity pricing system, which I’d also be up for.
Sorry you mis understand my comment , the supply will be smoother for the customer at the other end of the line I.e England by having batteries located at the other end of the bottle neck I.e Scotland.
Absolutely, if the transmission structure is limited, then reducing peaks in its usage to even-out capacity is essential.
This is just the beginning however I have just been reading about the latest storage battery technology about to be fielded that already dwarfs this capacity, meanwhile China is reportedly soon going to bring a terawatt level storage battery pack into operation. The criticisms against renewables, in particular not producing power as and when required, is beginning to look increasingly irrelevant, even if a lot of work on transmission still needs to be done to fully exploit this capability. Most people are not yet seeing the enormous progress being made in battery technology, especially more widely than storage with Lithium sulphur and solid state batteries coming into the automotive industry, reducing prices and recharge times to the point ICE vehicles will simply not be able to compete. Chery is to fully roll out a range in 2027 with 800 mile range and removes the danger of thermal runaway. We either jump on the wagon or get left in the dust like US car makers. Thankfully JLR have a long standing link to thus company as they enter their (if unsmooth) electric future.
I agree, the batteries will change everything. They will also make nuclear power much more cost effective although it’s going to struggle to compete against solar long term.
Like all solid state electronics it will just keep getting cheaper and better.
What battery technology are they using? Self igniting lithium ion or safer, but silver heavy, solid state?
New battery technologies, solid state or otherwise, are becoming a fraction of the cost of lithium ion batteries and rapidly removing costly and rare materials, even if their impact is still a few years away. Equally they are so long lasting that much of the disposal problem is being substantially reduced. Watch this space.
The British government should look at setting up direct business in Scotland that require large amounts of electricity but can be switched on and off rapidly. Green Hydrogen, aluminium smelting and electric arc furnaces all spring to mind.
Then surplus electricity can be directed into these industrial processes instead of paying wind turbines to switch off.
The UK government should also start buying up existing gas plants and start to directly provide low cost marginal electricity production to the grid so we get away from this insane system where gas prices set the electricity price for low cost marginal producers like wind, solar and nuclear.
This latest crisis in the Gulf has shown we need to be domestically self sufficient in energy production and not subject to the whims of international markets, Eastern European dictators or theocracies blocking international maritime traffic.
The technology is now available and the UK is leading the world in rolling out offshore wind. We need to double down and finish what we started.
‘The total subsidy cost per unit of renewable electricity generated has risen by nearly 50% in real terms since 2005 and now stands at approximately £200/MWh. This contradicts government and industry claims that renewables are becoming cheaper but is consistent with expectations from the physics of energy flows, the empirical study of the capital and operating costs of both wind and solar, and the grid expansion and reinforcement and system management costs known to be imposed by renewables.
It should be borne in mind that about one third of this total cost, £77 billion (2024 prices) has hit households through their electricity bills, with the remaining £153 billion being first paid by industrial, commercial and public sector consumers and then passed through to households in the form of increased prices for goods and services, in taxes, and in reduced wages and rates of employment. In this context it should also be noted that subsidies to renewable generators result in an increase in the Treasury’s VAT receipts and thus an increase in the general cost of living. Electricity consumed by households is charged at the reduced rate of 5% and cannot be reclaimed. Businesses also pay VAT on electricity, but we can assume that this is fully reclaimed. However, as the renewables subsidy costs are passed through to end consumers of goods and services they will become liable to VAT, unless the goods and services are exported or exempted. The precise magnitude of this VAT uplift resulting from renewables subsidies is uncertain, but the potential is significant, amounting to around £3 billion a year at present, and to around £30 billion in total since 2002 (in 2024 prices).
There can be little doubt that renewable electricity subsidies are a significant factor in the much-discussed cost of living crisis and are very likely to be an important element underlying the weak growth in productivity in the UK economy since the financial crisis of 2008.
Renewable electricity generators have now enjoyed generous financial support for over twenty years without showing any significant progress towards independent economic viability. On the contrary, the requirement for such support seems to be rising. The public is surely entitled to ask when government will bring this extraordinary and insupportable level of subsidy to an end.’
‘capacity of 86 MWh’…’estimated cost to decommission a 1-MWh NMC lithium-ion battery-based grid energy storage system is $91,500.’
Storage unit life: 5 years
Fires at some BESS installations have caused concern in communities considering BESS as a method to support their grids. BESS fires pose challenges to first responders due to the:
Difficulty in putting out lithium-ion battery fires.
Potential health impacts from emissions.
Need to clean up and properly dispose of burned or impacted batteries.
‘A series of explosions caused a large fire to break out at a battery recycling plant in North Ayrshire, Scotland on 9 April (2025). The incident happened almost exactly a year after the factory, owned by Fenix Battery Recycling, was largely destroyed in another fire which took several days to extinguish.’
A valid counterpoint to the every increasing sycophancy around ‘green’ ‘cheap’ renewables. I find it interesting that even RR with their investment in SMR’s (which for industry would surely be a more suitable solution that battery storage ) has started to look at this .Its almost as if they have given up that Mad Ed will ever be forced out or change his zealous approach to UK Energy production and look at viable alternatives to his current policies.
The Troll is back, you figures are nonsense, I don’t know who’s propaganda your spouting, i suspect St Petersburg.
Enough to power 10,000 homes – for less than 2 hours. They never give the time power can be supplied.