A renewable energy business based in South Yorkshire is investing £700k in an innovative new energy storage system.Banks Renewables, which is owned by The Banks Group in the North East, will install a new type of lithium-ion battery at its Hazlehead wind farm, directly alongside the control building for the plant.

The new system will be the size of a shipping container, and it will be implemented to store some of the clean power generated by the three turbines on the wind farm. It will also allow energy to be released to the National Grid when demand increases and decrease waste lost from transmission when demand levels are low.

The batteries also help to reduce the amount of equipment that needs to be installed and serviced across the site by providing a robust and permanent solution with minimal maintenance needs. These types of maintenance cost do not appear on consumer energy bills, but they are present, requiring teams of network operators to keep the equipment in safe and efficient working order.

Banks hopes that the new storage system will be in place by autumn and is now looking at other wind farm sites which might benefit from the highly efficient storage batteries. The energy storage solution will have no impact on the surrounding environment, and the small footprint storage area will be hidden by surrounding vegetation.

This kind of energy storage system provides flexibility and resilience to the national grid and helps to reduce customer costs. It also maximises the value of the clean energy being generated in the first place by reducing waste. The wind farm at Hazelead already products enough clean energy to meet the needs of thousands of homes whilst generating revenues for the local community benefits fund.