Blast fears over plan for solar battery site

FEARFUL residents in Guy Fawkes’s former village say children’s lives will be at risk if lithium-ion battery sites are built near a primary school.

- By Richard Ashmore

People in Scotton, North Yorkshire, are angry over plans for a solar farm and battery energy storage systems facility from Boom Power, and another 200-megawatt battery site by Harmony Energy.

Companies are seeking planning permission for battery energy sites throughout the country amid Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband’s net zero green crusade.

The batteries store electricity from renewable power stations like solar and wind farms, then sell it back to the grid when supply is low.

However, at least four previous UK fires linked to the technology and 95 worldwide have fuelled safety fears.

As well as producing extreme 900C heat, if a battery goes into a “thermal runaway” state, it can explode, producing deadly clouds of hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acid.