We are long-term partners in our communities – and we look to work with you to bring the benefits of the clean energy transition to the places we operate. That includes designing our projects in a way that is sensitive to the environment and our neighbours – but it also means investing directly into our communities to assist them in becoming the most sustainable in the UK.

i. Jobs during construction – we estimate up to 90 full time equivalent jobs during the peak of construction and a further 110 FTE jobs sustained in the supply chain.
Jobs post construction could include:

1. Local site access and project track maintenance contractor

2. Local groundskeeper

3. Operations and maintenance response engineer x 3 (shift workers)

4. Site cleaner

5. Site manager

6. Security officer

7. Outdoor education community engagement and wildlife officer

8. Maintenance technician X 2

9. Community fund manager

ii. A new nature recreation area – we are proposing to deliver a new nature recreational area, with parking, which will enable public access to the countryside on land that is currently inaccessible to the public.

Our plans include: extensive tree and hedgerow planting, an outdoor education area, wildlife ponds, wetland areas, upgraded footpaths and a visitors’ car park.

iii. We are committed to supporting our communities through a Community Energy Transition Foundation, which invests in those areas where we have operational sites. The Foundation receives funding from each site, proportionate to its size. We expect this project, if approved, to contribute around £1 million each year.

With that funding, the Foundation can then provide substantial financial support to individuals, businesses, charities and community groups to promote sustainable communities and provide a financial stimulus for the green transition in your area.

The land within our proposal is approximately 173 acres, of which around 58 acres would be developed for battery storage development and transmission substation.

Further areas would be set aside for a new nature recreation area for the community.

The project will have a 1GW storage capacity with a 4-hour duration. Total capacity is around 4600Mwh currently. This means that theoretically if the batteries were fully charged the project could export energy at 1000 MWs for 4 hours.

A 1GW BESS will store enough electricity to power up to 3.9 million homes, for up to 4 hours at a time when the network is in demand.

To help us select the most suitable location for development, we carried out a series of rigorous assessments across numerous and varied potential sites.

This process helped us to filter out unsuitable options and identify those sites that are likely to have the least impact and the most benefit when developed.

We have carefully considered environmental and amenity factors in the surrounding area. We have selected the site due to a number of factors including:

– Grid connection: the two overhead power lines that run through the site mean that the energy stored will be able to connect easily to the existing transmission network.

– Environmental factors: the site is away from densely populated areas; there are no historic considerations, no sensitive ecological designations, no heritage assets; the site is the lowest flood risk; the soil is graded 3b and of only moderate quality; the development area of the site is c.450 metres from the closest residential property.

– Site availability: the site is readily available, ensuring there won’t be major delays in starting the project.

The UK is committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and expects to completely decarbonise its energy system by 2035.

75% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sector. In the future, wind and solar will be the primary energy sources across the UK.

The UK has committed to decarbonising its electricity network by 2035. This means that in less than 11 years, 100% of British electricity needs to come from low carbon sources.

As we phase out fossil fuels for cars and heating, the demand for renewable electricity is expected to double by 2050. Electricity will continue to play an ever-greater role in our lives, heating our homes (with gas heating of new build homes banned from 2025), powering our future transport systems (the sale of new petrol and diesel cars banned from 2035), buildings and industries.

This shift requires reliable and consistent electricity supplies, and battery storage is crucial to this process as it allows us to manage the intermittent nature of renewable energy and meet a more consistent demand.

Batteries store extra energy from renewable sources, like solar and wind, so homes and businesses stay powered when the sun isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing. This helps keep energy costs stable and reliable while also contributing to the country’s move toward cleaner energy.

The project is being brought forward by NatPower UK. We are part of the NatPower Group, an independent energy enabler, with 25 years’ experience and 30GW of assets developed across 20 countries and six continents.

We are making a meaningful contribution to the UK’s need for clean, secure and affordable energy. By delivering more than 60GWh of energy storage across the country, we are aiming to provide 20% of the energy storage requirement of the UK by 2040. We are also bringing forward wind and solar farms in different places to contribute cleaner energy for the UK.

We are long-term partners in our communities, and we look to work with you to bring the benefits of the clean energy transition to the places we operate. That includes designing our projects in a way that is sensitive to the environment and our neighbours, but it also means investing directly into our communities to assist them in becoming the most sustainable in the UK.

Bellmoor Energy Storage is a proposed battery energy storage system (BESS). It will store electricity from the grid at times of lower demand and release it back to the grid when it is needed most. It will make an essential contribution to ensuring reliable, secure and affordable electricity for the country as it moves away from using coal and gas for electricity generation.

In addition to the energy storage itself, there will also be:

– Large areas of tree planting and a new local nature recreation area dedicated to the local community and wildlife, open to all.

– Electricity transmission substation.

The nature recreation area provides an opportunity to increase wildlife on the site and enable access by members of the public. We will create a parking area for members of the public to use. Nat Power will upgrade and create multiple paths aimed to ensure that the public can enjoy the area. The nature area includes extensive tree planting, wildlife ponds and the creation of a wetland area. There will be additional area set aside for ground nesting birds located near the NatPower substation to the northeast of the project site.

The development prioritises protecting the existing trees and hedgerows, together with additional planting, to boost local biodiversity.

The project will achieve a minimum of 90% biodiversity net gain by preserving habitats, maintaining ecological links, and safeguarding key species.

Environmental assessments have already helped shape our proposals for building and operating Bellmoor.

Feedback from this consultation, along with ongoing environmental assessments and technical work, will help to further refine our proposals. This includes identifying appropriate mitigation measures that could avoid reduce, mitigate or offset any likely significant negative effects.

The final results of these assessments will be presented in our planning application.

The site has been selected in part because it is located c. 450 metres from the closest residential property.

Our specialist acoustic consultant has undertaken background sound monitoring over a 7-day period up to a 1km radius around our site. The outcome of our noise modelling has shown that no significant adverse noise effects will be created by the proposed development.

While the batteries are silent, the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system does generate some noise – typically around 65 decibels at a distance of 5 metres. This is about the level of a normal conversation.

The design of the project will ensure that it will be well integrated with the surrounding environment. Baseline assessments of the site and surrounding environment have been conducted, which has informed the layout and design of the BESS facility.

This assessment included a study area around the site to evaluate visibility and landscape and visual impact. The site is strategically located to be well-hidden from the few nearby properties. The location of the energy storage site, alongside the inclusion of woodland screen planting, seeks to minimise landscape and visual impacts, including those from adjacent footpaths.

Battery storage is safe by design. Given this, the risk of fire is extremely low, though we recognise that it is of the utmost importance to provide reassurance that this has been fully managed.

We will work closely with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, local authority environmental health teams and other statutory bodies to confirm that our proposed designs meet the health and safety requirements set by local and national policy.

In the unlikely event of a fire, it would be contained within individual containers. Our systems have inbuilt monitoring and suppression mechanisms that provide several layers of safety.

The CTMP will set out mitigation measures, controls and monitoring to reduce environmental effects during construction, including any noise and vibration.

We are also providing a construction air and dust assessment to address concerns related to noise during construction.

Potential mitigation measures could include:

– Careful selection of plant and construction methods.

– Use of site enclosures where practicable.

– Locating potentially noisy equipment away from homes and other places where people may hear it.

– Reducing the risk of noise and vibration at source.

We will assess the likely impact on the local road network and submit a Transport Assessment as part of our planning application.

Our approach to managing site traffic will be outlined in the Construction Traffic Management Plan, which will also consider the potential cumulative effects of other local projects on the road network.

Activity on site will vary day by day across the construction period. Our current transport strategy involves the main access to the site via the A19 which provides a main artery route direct from Teesport.

From the A19, there would be a short journey through the village of South Kilvington onto Hag Lane in order to reach the site.

We are also currently reviewing road improvements to make sure vehicles can move easily to and from the site.

During operation, the site will be managed remotely with minimal traffic using the local road network, involving weekly site visits.

The measures we will take to limit the potential effects of construction will be included in a Construction Traffic Management Plan (CTMP) which will be submitted as part of our application.

We are currently developing our CTMP and are keen to hear from the community about measures we could introduce to ensure the construction process is as least disruptive as possible. The CTMP will set out how we will manage construction activities and any traffic moving to and from the site.

We will propose to limit or exclude deliveries at peak traffic times. Limit operational hours and agree these with the Local Planning Authority and the community.