Grid-scale BESS projects totalling nearly 4GWh were awarded planning consent in the UK during October, while there is now nearly 22GWh under construction.
The figures come from Solar Media Market Research’s Battery Storage: UK Pipeline & Completed Assets Database report.
Projects totalling 1,358MW of power and 3,700MWh of capacity were given the green light by local and national government to go-ahead in October, bringing the total approved pipeline to 77.9GW/162.5GWh.
October’s figure is the most large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) approvals by capacity since July, when around 5GW/10GWh was given the go-ahead by either local authorities or central government.
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Notable projects that were given the green light last month include Qair UK’s 342MW Red Moss BESS project in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, and Evolution Power’s 165MW Stonestreet Green solar-plus-storage project in Kent, England, as reported by our sister site Solar Power Portal.
Owing to their size, both projects were approved at the national level: Red Moss by the Scottish Energy Consents Unit (ECU) and Stonestreet Green by secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband via a development consent order (DCO).
The Report’s data also shows that there is now 9,937MW/21,883MWh of large-scale BESS capacity under construction. The figures from our colleagues at Solar Media Market Research are posted on a monthly basis as part of an ESN Premium series that will run to the end of this year.
Using project-level data, we can see the breakdown of these projects under construction by region, with Scotland the clear leader with nearly 6GWh being built.
Half of that is from three c.500MW/1,000MWh projects from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), which ESN Premium discussed with one of the investor’s partners last year.
The largest single project currently being built in the UK is the 1,400/3,100MWh Thorpe Marsh project from Fidra Energy, in South Yorkshire, Yorkshire and Humberside region.
That accounts for more than half of the Yorkshire and Humberside region’s 2.4GW/5.2GWh under construction, 23.6% of the UK’s total (second highest after Scotland).
| Region | MW | MWh | Percentage of total |
| Yorkshire and Humberside | 2404.8 | 5169.5 | 23.6% |
| West Midlands | 1096 | 3196 | 14.6% |
| Wales | 482 | 992.5 | 4.5% |
| South West | 300.3 | 600.6 | 2.7% |
| South East (inc. London) | 767.3 | 1484.2 | 6.7% |
| Scotland | 2838.1 | 5906.4 | 27.0% |
| North West | 592.9 | 1386.5 | 6.3% |
| North East | 449.8 | 1249.7 | 5.7% |
| Eastern | 248.4 | 432.8 | 2.0% |
| East Midlands | 757.3 | 1464.7 | 6.7% |
| Total | 9,936.9 | 21,882.9 |
The UK has 7,862MW/11,765MWh of operational grid-scale capacity, with almost 2GW/3.5GWh added in 2025 alone, a 36% increase year-on-year, with 2 months still remaining.
If you would like to understand more about the pipeline, where this data came from, and Solar Media Market Research, please reach out to [email protected].
