AN energy firm wants to set up a battery energy storage centre near Helensburgh, has been revealed.
A public meeting is to be held in Helensburgh next week to reveal more details the plan for Ardencaple farm, about 1km north-east of Rhu.
Developers say Scotland often has a surplus in wind energy from onshore and offshore turbines, while there has been consistent criticism that infrastructure has not been upgraded to help deliver Scottish renewable energy into the UK grid.
As a result Ylem Energy Ltd wants to build a battery energy storage facillity where large amounts of energy can be stored before being delivered elsewhere in the country.
Ylem is holding a pre-application meeting at the Drumfork Community Centre on Wednesday, July 12 between 4pm and 8pm.
The company says members of the project team will give a presentation on their proposals at 5pm.
In a letter to residents, Ylem states it is an international organisation based in Manchester which has installed more than 400 megawatts of power generation and storage - enough to power a million homes.
It states: "Battery storage helps ease the energy network's transition to decentralising generation. We achieve this at grid scale by building, owning and operating battery energy storage systems.
"These are strategically located and sized to offer long-term support to the National Grid."
The firm says it has invested more than £100 million in projects since 2020.
They want to use half a hectare of current pasture land, bounded by vegetation and rail fencing, for the facility, with the West Highland railway line on the site's southern boundary.
The nearest homes are 400 metres to the south.
Their storage facility would have capacity for 50MW, providing electricity to the National Grid at times of high demand or of low generation by renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
It's proposed that the structures on the site would be about three metres tall, with transformers, cooling units and two control units.
Images on the company's website suggest the battery storage looks like shipping containers.
Queries ahead of next week's event can be emailed to flexibility@ylemenergy.co.uk.
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