I'm involved in fighting 1GW/4GWhr Battery Energy Storage facility (£1bn budget) proposed by a startup company quite literally on my rural
doorstep. If built as specified it would immediately be the largest in
the world. There is a twin project of the same sort 20 miles south (and
another reasonable one on the brown field site of Teesside steelworks).

Despite being infrastructure projects of global rather than merely
national significance they are in fact county level planning decisions.

I'm aware of a Bill by Anna Sabine with long title:

A Bill to make fire and rescue authorities statutory consultees for
planning applications relating to Battery Energy Storage Systems; and
for connected purposes.

It will probably come far too late for us, but I would like to see the
first draft of the bill and probably comment on it. Where on the
parliament site do I find the actual working text of the bill?
I have this URL :

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3806

The UK legislation as it stands is completely bonkers with speculators
piling money into planning applications for huge projects where they
think they will make the most money with the least effort.

IOW where land is cheap but not close to where power is being produced
nor where power needs to be stored to keep the lights on in London & the
South East. These particular BESS sit on the two most overloaded N-S
400kV interconnectors in North Yorkshire at a choke point.

Thermal boundary B7a for anyone interested in probing the NESO site.
Direct link:

https://www.neso.energy/document/286591/download
pages 37, 70-72

--
Martin Brown

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In message <vm0hkk$15ks5$1@dont-email.me>, at 13:55:31 on Sun, 12 Jan
2025, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> remarked:

I'm involved in fighting 1GW/4GWhr Battery Energy Storage facility
(£1bn budget) proposed by a startup company quite literally on my rural >doorstep. If built as specified it would immediately be the largest in
the world. There is a twin project of the same sort 20 miles south (and >another reasonable one on the brown field site of Teesside steelworks).

Despite being infrastructure projects of global rather than merely
national significance they are in fact county level planning decisions.

I'm aware of a Bill by Anna Sabine with long title:

A Bill to make fire and rescue authorities statutory consultees for
planning applications relating to Battery Energy Storage Systems; and
for connected purposes.

Short Title is "Battery Energy Storage Systems (Fire Safety) Bill"

It will probably come far too late for us, but I would like to see the
first draft of the bill and probably comment on it. Where on the
parliament site do I find the actual working text of the bill?
I have this URL :

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3806

Which suggests it's still not yet reached final draft stage. But don't
worry, it's a Private Members Bill, and hence has almost no chance
whatsoever of getting much past the Second Reading (scheduled for 25th
April 2025). It's the Parliamentary equivalent of a Press Release about
some topic the MP in question has a bee in their bonnet about.

But if you want a copy, write to her office in Parliament and no doubt
one of her researchers will send it to you.

The UK legislation as it stands is completely bonkers with speculators
piling money into planning applications for huge projects where they
think they will make the most money with the least effort.

IOW where land is cheap but not close to where power is being produced
nor where power needs to be stored to keep the lights on in London &
the South East. These particular BESS sit on the two most overloaded
N-S 400kV interconnectors in North Yorkshire at a choke point.

Thermal boundary B7a for anyone interested in probing the NESO site.
Direct link:

https://www.neso.energy/document/286591/download
pages 37, 70-72

--
Roland Perry

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 12/01/2025 14:26, Roland Perry wrote:

In message <vm0hkk$15ks5$1@dont-email.me>, at 13:55:31 on Sun, 12 Jan
2025, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> remarked:

I'm involved in fighting 1GW/4GWhr Battery Energy Storage facility
(£1bn budget) proposed by a startup company quite literally on my
rural doorstep. If built as specified it would immediately be the
largest in the world. There is a twin project of the same sort 20
miles south (and another reasonable one on the brown field site of
Teesside steelworks).

Despite being infrastructure projects of global rather than merely
national significance they are in fact county level planning decisions.

I'm aware of a Bill by Anna Sabine with long title:

A Bill to make fire and rescue authorities statutory consultees for
planning applications relating to Battery Energy Storage Systems; and
for connected purposes.

Short Title is "Battery Energy Storage Systems (Fire Safety) Bill"

It will probably come far too late for us, but I would like to see the
first draft of the bill and probably comment on it. Where on the
parliament site do I find the actual working text of the bill?
I have this URL :

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3806

Which suggests it's still not yet reached final draft stage. But don't
worry, it's a Private Members Bill, and hence has almost no chance
whatsoever of getting much past the Second Reading (scheduled for 25th
April 2025). It's the Parliamentary equivalent of a Press Release about
some topic the MP in question has a bee in their bonnet about.

But if you want a copy, write to her office in Parliament and no doubt
one of her researchers will send it to you.

OK Thanks Roland. Pity it stands no chance of ever becoming law.

I expect her efforts on this problem will be recognised when the enquiry
into large scale uncontrolled BESS fires is held (in about a decade).

The two nearest fire stations to us are retained firefighters only ( so
~40 minute response time) and the nearest hydrant to the proposed BESS
site is on a 3" pipe private pumped well water with a 6' head of water.

Firefighters are expected to put these things out when/if they catch
fire but are not even a statutory planning consultee at present.

--
Martin Brown

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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In message <vm36oa$1qecp$1@dont-email.me>, at 14:08:10 on Mon, 13 Jan
2025, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> remarked:

The two nearest fire stations to us are retained firefighters only ( so
~40 minute response time) and the nearest hydrant to the proposed BESS
site is on a 3" pipe private pumped well water with a 6' head of water.

Firefighters are expected to put these things out when/if they catch
fire but are not even a statutory planning consultee at present.

They can respond anyway, as can any member of the public regarding this
issue. I wonder if the site would have its own fire-fighting capability
anyway?
--
Roland Perry

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 14/01/2025 16:40, Roland Perry wrote:

In message <vm36oa$1qecp$1@dont-email.me>, at 14:08:10 on Mon, 13 Jan
2025, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> remarked:

The two nearest fire stations to us are retained firefighters only (
so ~40 minute response time) and the nearest hydrant to the proposed
BESS site is on a 3" pipe private pumped well water with a 6' head of
water.

Firefighters are expected to put these things out when/if they catch
fire but are not even a statutory planning consultee at present.

They can respond anyway, as can any member of the public regarding this issue. I wonder if the site would have its own fire-fighting capability anyway?

The modules have built in Novec fire suppression using a fluoro ketone.
(next best thing to Halon but much less damaging to the ozone layer)

http://novecsystems.com/novec-1230-fire-system/

However, it doesn't always work and the resulting conflagrations are
very spectacular once a container full of Lithium ion batteries goes
into thermal runaway - pre-ignition dense white toxic fumes or fire
(only happened once in the UK so far to my knowledge - in Liverpool).
The vapour explosion from that one fortunately occurred before the fire
brigade arrived on site. Luckily no-one injured.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-66584335
(BBC exaggerate the time taken to actually put it out)

Once a Lithium battery module is on fire there is no way at present to
put it out - only option is to cool its neighbours with copious amounts
of water and wait for the ferocious fire to burn itself out in ~5 hours.
Then about 2-3 days of babysitting the remains in case it restarts.

The cute 3D fly by shows a US style toytown water tower that would last
all of 10 minutes with a high volume pump attached to it. The 2D plans
from the original "consultation" show no water supplies on site at all.

We know that the planning applications for Rounton and Thirsk 1GW BESS
have been submitted to the County Council and are awaiting validation.
Both are on rural agricultural heavy boulder clay fit only for grazing
(not protected green belt).

Each will be a rural remote monitored site with roughly 900 standard
shipping container sized modules full of batteries plus a 1GW substation
to link into one of the 400kV lines nearby. A similar proposal is also
in play near Thirsk and encountering similar levels of opposition.

Security will be the typical combination of CCTV, razorwire heavy
industrial fence and electric fence (like any other GW sub station).

--
Martin Brown

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