Shamir Jiwa, CEO and Founder of The Maximeyes Group, one of the UK’s leading and most innovative energy companies, applauds the decision of Scottish Power to embrace battery systems as way of storing power, maintaining the resilience and stability of the grid.
Scottish Power, which operates 215 turbines at the Whitelee wind farm on Eaglesham Moor, near Glasgow, is planning to build a huge “super battery” facility to store power generated by the wind farm. One of the most forward thinking and sustainable projects in the UK, the Scottish government approved plans to build the battery storage site, which will be the biggest wind farm battery site in the UK, covering an area the size of a football pitch.
The new facility would support the resilience and stability of the electricity grid, even when the wind is not blowing. It will be able to achieve full charge in less than half an hour. The battery will be capable of being fully discharged or used in bursts as and when required, keeping electricity networks stable by balancing supply and demand.
Shamir Jiwa said: “We wholeheartedly support the decision made by Scottish Power to embrace and develop battery storage as an aid to managing and maximising power at the Whitelee wind farm. This is why The Maximeyes Group has invested in Puredrive Energy Ltd, one of the UKs leading battery storage companies. The ethos of the business and the Puredrive ‘business model’ mirrors the plans of Scottish Power to revolutionise how power is distributed.”
“With the Grid struggling to meet increased demands from new technology, such as electric and autonomous vehicles, battery storage systems herald the future and can provide the much-needed additional power supply to meet these rising demands. If today, we all drove an electric vehicle, the grid would ‘black out’ and fall over, with insufficient power to meet the increased demand” explains Shamir “Storing power, for when we need it most, is the way forward. I hope other energy companies quickly follow.”
“With battery storage technology making significant advances in recent years, robust systems are now available in the commercial sectors as well in the residential market that can help consumers to break dependency on the Grid. This being the ultimate ‘holy grail’ and not within the bounds of possibility for the average consumer, until now”, concludes Shamir.
All UK power companies should generate energy from wind power instead of oil and gas, with renewable energy generation needing to quadruple, and with onshore wind being the cheapest form of green energy.
By integrating energy storage technologies with onshore wind, we are ‘blowing away’ one of the myths about renewable generation not being available when you need it. Natural resources like wind and solar are variable in their very nature, and by using a battery we can ensure we optimise our ability to use the resource most effectively.
ESOS Phase 2