A wave of large scale battery energy storage facilities (BESS) could soon be dotted around the Ayrshire countryside.

And while they won’t pose the same visual impact as the dozens of wind farms erected in East and South Ayrshire over the last decade or so, the latest trend in the renewables sector does pose questions around safety.

BESS facilities provide a way to store energy created by renewables such as wind and solar generation that cannot be used.

It can then be fed into the grid to provide a back up when energy generation is low.

However, there have been concerns raised about the fire risk around the large number of lithium batteries involved, and the toxic fumes that can be released in a blaze.

Councillors have regularly raised the risk of fire at planning meetings, whether approving smaller applications or responding to consultations for the larger facilities considered by the Scottish Government.

Applicants have pointed to a variety of steps taken to address risks such as overheating in hot weather.

The industry says that there is a greater understanding of fire risks overall, with additional precautions now included in designs.

There are currently 21 BESS projects which have had a planning application submitted (12), is waiting for construction to begin (8) or are under construction (1) in East and South Ayrshire.

There are clusters around Kilmarnock and between Coylton and Ochiltree, with the four Kilmarnock sites accounting for the vast majority of the total capacity.

One application has been revised and just one has been refused. This adds up to capacity of around 1400MW.

To put that into perspective, it was reported that, at the end of 2023, there was operational capacity of just 3.6GW across the whole of the UK.

A BESS can take the surplus energy created at times of high surplus production and feed it back into the grid when the energy production drops due to lower wind speeds.

While the technology is relatively new, both East and South Ayrshire Council’s planning departments say that BESS would be covered by health and safety legislation.

However, South Ayrshire Council planners have taken a more cautious approach than their neighbours.

A spokesperson for South Ayrshire Council said: “The council’s planning service is aware that fire safety and fire risk in relation to battery storage facilities (BESS) is a matter which has been subject to recent discussion at both Scottish Government and Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) level.”

They pointed out that major BESS developments would be outwith the scope of the planning system, instead falling under the UK Electricity Act.

This also means that the Health and Safety Executive is not required to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on an application.

This had created ‘uncertainty’ due to a lack of a Scottish Government policy position or guidance.

They continued: “It is therefore the current stance of the service to take a precautionary approach to the potential planning impacts associated with fire safety and risk.

This means either recommending or requiring a Fire Risk and Battery Storage Management Plan/ Emergency Action Plan to be provided during the assessment of applications or through the imposition of planning conditions.

“In either case, it is the council’s expectation that such information would demonstrate how the development has been designed to minimise the potential for fire risk and set out mitigation that would be in place in a fire event or emergency.”

East Ayrshire Council says that they are satisfied that the health and safety legislation was suitable, given a lack of further guidance for BESS applications.

Both authorities pointed out that Scottish Fire and Rescue would be consulted when considering these facilities.

Asked whether the BESS facilities would be monitored once operations, the East Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “Operators will implement their own internal monitoring processes to monitor the operation of their BESS developments.

“If legislative requirements come forward which affect the operation of any existing or future BESS developments, then this may have a bearing on any other such developments in an area.”

The South Ayrshire Council spokesperson said that it’s monitoring would be limited to ensuring compliance with any fire risk and battery storage management plan.