Intelligent Land Investments Group (ILI) has achieved planning consent for its 50MW energy storage project at Auchterawe Farm near Fort Augustus in the Scottish Highlands.
The project was approved by the Highland South Planning Applications Committee.
The company is leading the development of 3GW of energy storage in Scotland through the development a 1GW portfolio of battery storage projects and three pumped storage hydro projects, the most advanced being Red John at Loch Ness.
Mark Wilson, ILI Group chief executive, said: “This project consent is a further step towards our energy storage plan for the UK, following after last month’s consent of our Fordtown site in Aberdeenshire – this brings our total consented storage projects to 300MW.
“Projects like these are now taking centre stage in the deployment of renewable energy and the drive towards net-zero, as energy storage is now widely recognised as essential to balancing the grid network – National Grid has estimated that we will require as much as 40GW of energy storage by 2050, whereas we currently have around 5GW.”
Wilson continued: “ILI Group has a comprehensive energy storage pipeline with both ‘long-term’ energy storage which can supply energy to the grid for many hours at a time, like our Red John pump storage plant at Loch Ness, and ‘short term’ energy storage which can supply energy for minutes at a time, like our project here at Auchterawe.”
Hamilton-based ILI Group operates across the energy storage, renewable energy and residential development markets.
Intelligent Land Investments was formed in 2004 with the aim of helping resolve the UK’s housing crisis by promoting eco-friendly developments where the housing need is the greatest. Then in 2017, ILI Group was formed with the express aim of achieving planning consents for three pumped storage hydro sites in Scotland.