Energy has been exported from a commercial 1MW battery energy storage system connected to Carland Cross windfarm in Cornwall.

For ScottishPower Renewables, and its Spanish parent Iberdrola, this is the first in a pipeline of almost 1GW of battery storage projects across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

It includes two battery projects currently under construction in the Republic of Ireland and a 50MW ‘super battery’ at Whitelee, just south of Glasgow.

Lindsay McQuade, cief executive of ScottishPower Renewables, said: “Batteries, like the one at Carland Cross – which may be small in scale but considerable in terms of what it means for the local energy system in Cornwall and what it means for ScottishPower – mark a new era for renewable generation. This will change the way the grid is managed by storing excess energy, so that it can be exported when the demand is there, or there’s a need to support grid resilience and operations.”

The Carland Cross battery was brought into operation by a joint venture between SPR and Centrica. Energy stored in the battery will soon be available to the Cornwall Local Energy Market (LEM) initiative, helping balance electricity supply and demand at a local level.

Construction works for a 10MW solar scheme at Carland Cross windfarm are expected to get underway in early 2021. SPR says this will make it  the UK’s first utility-scale energy park combining wind, solar and storage, and the first hybrid site in the Iberdrola portfolio.