Renewable energy developer SSE Renewables recently announced the launch of its first public consultation on the proposed Shepway Energy Park project in the Romney Swamp area of Kent, UK. The project plans to construct a 200 MW solar power station and a 400 MW battery energy storage system (BESS), with a total scale of 600 MW. As it meets the National Key Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) standards, its planning permit will be directly approved by the UK Planning Inspectorate and the Minister of Energy.

According to the arrangement, the first stage of public participation will be open from today, and local residents and stakeholders can provide feedback through offline communication meetings (June 18th, 19th, 21st), emails, or written forms before July 13th, 2025. The developer will optimize the plan based on feedback and conduct statutory public consultation in the future. The project is currently in its early stages, and the environmental assessment has not yet been fully launched. The development schedule shows that the environmental investigation is scheduled to start in the summer of 2025, enter statutory consultation in early 2026, and submit a Development Permit Order (DCO) application in the autumn of the same year. It is expected to be approved by the end of 2027 or early 2028 and officially put into operation in 2033.

Haver Dookhit, Senior Project Development Manager at SSE Renewables, said, "Community feedback is crucial to project design, and we are committed to working with local residents to improve the solution." In recent years, the company has been active in the energy storage field in the UK, and in August 2024, the 320MW/640MWh Monk Fryston BESS project in northern England, which partnered with Sunac Power, has become one of the largest energy storage facilities in the UK. The advancement of the Shepway project, in collaboration with recent submissions of 500MW to 600MW optical storage NSIP projects from companies such as Island Green Power and RES, will jointly promote the construction of renewable energy infrastructure in the UK. (This article is from the official website of Jian Dao www.seetao.com. Reproduction without permission is prohibited, otherwise it will be prosecuted. Please indicate Jian Dao website+original link when reprinting.) Jian Dao website strategy column editor/Wu Juan