Battery site with 480 shipping containers planned for Bucks countryside

Buckinghamshire Council has published details of proposals for the energy storage facility on 11 hectares of agricultural land north of Mop End Farm, with access from Mop End Lane, which runs parallel to the site.

Energy company Voltis, which is seeking an environmental opinion from the council, says its proposed battery system could store up to 100 megawatts of electricity.

Although the site is within the green belt and Chiltern Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, planner Emma Ridley from consultants Pegasus claimed the battery plant’s harm on the environment would be limited.

She said: “The nature of the proposed development is for battery storage development, a technology which is well understood and in operation elsewhere throughout the UK, and therefore would not result in any usual, complex or potentially hazardous environmental effects.”

Proposals for the site include shipping container-like metal battery boxes fitted with air conditioning units set on concrete footings or screw pile foundations, ‘depending on soil conditions’.

Blueprints for the site show 480 of these boxes, with other infrastructure potentially including an electricity substation, 3m high CCTV cameras to cover the site – not outward facing – and 2.4m high security and acoustic fencing.

Existing hedgerows and trees would be ‘retained’ under the plans, while new trees and hedgerow will be planted to ‘mitigate the visual impact of the development’.

Plans to construct a larger battery site in Claydon have drawn fierce opposition from campaigners and politicians.