A BID for another battery storage facility to be built in a Scottish village has been submitted.
Scottish Borders Council received a Proposal of Application Notice from Green Switch Capital Ltd to build a battery energy storage system (BESS) to the west of Gattonside, north east of Sawmill Cottage.
It is the latest in a series of such applications which have raised concerns over the impact on the environment amid warnings of the potential “industrialisation” of the landscape.
East Berwickshire Independent councillor James Anderson has put together a motion to be debated at the next meeting of Scottish Borders Council.
It calls on councillors to agree that council leader Euan Jardine write to acting energy minister Gillian Martin MSP to request a meeting focused on the issue of proposed battery storage facilities within the Borders.
The latest application is for the erection of a battery energy storage system with a capacity of 42MW.
The development would incorporate battery containers, as well as inverters, transformers and substations.
Further associated works would include enabling earthworks, construction of an access track and installation of security measures, including gates/fencing, lighting and CCTV system.
Public consultation events are to be held at Gattonside Village Hall on November 27 and January 15.
There have been no less than six recent battery storage-related planning applications submitted to Scottish Borders Council centred specifically around Eccles electricity substation, two of which have already been approved and four which are currently outstanding.
If all six are approved they would cover an area 14 times the footprint of Leitholm village and all would be sited on prime agricultural land.
One of the bids pending is a proposed BESS at Pittlesheugh Farm on land west of Springwells Farmhouse, the refusal of which opponents see as key to at least bringing about a pause in the growing number of applications.
Conservative Borders MP John Lamont is one of those who has raised his concerns regarding over-capacity.
