
Mowbray
Welcome to our project page for the proposed Mowbray Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).
This webpage provides information on our proposals for a new 1GW energy storage project located on land north of the village of East Rounton, North Yorkshire.
We held a public consultation between 29th November and the 16th December 2024 on our proposals for Mowbray Energy Storage. We would like to thank everyone who attended our consultation event and shared their views.
Your feedback has been invaluable and has helped inform our planning application, which has now been submitted to North Yorkshire Council and includes a document summarising the comments received from the local community. North Yorkshire Council will conduct its own statutory consultation before determining the application.
Further details of our proposals, and a virtual showroom of our public exhibition, are available in the document library below.
The planning application is currently awaiting verification by North Yorkshire Council. We will post the application reference number once this process is complete.
Proposal

The Mowbray site will incorporate:
- the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
- a transmission connected substation
- large areas of new tree planting to support local wildlife and help screen the site
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.
Should the project go ahead, the foundation will invest in local initiatives that support the transition to net zero, ensuring significant local benefits from the delivery of national infrastructure.
We expect this project, if approved, to contribute around £1 million each year to the local areas.



Frequently asked questions
The project
Mowbray 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 habitat enhancement to support wildlife and help screen the site.
– An electricity substation
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.
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 UK was the first major country in the world to make a legally binding commitment to achieving a balance between the amount of greenhouse gases produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere.
To help us select the most suitable location for development, we analysed 31 million parcels of land across the UK and 20,000 km of overhead lines – the whole grid system – to find the most appropriate places for our projects.
Sites were then identified, assessed and scored against a number of pre-determined criteria that enabled us to filter out the most unsuitable options and to identify the sites with the least impact on the local environment and communities.
This site is located between two existing overhead transmission lines, via which we can connect directly into the national grid. There are no other brownfield sites along the overhead lines that were suitable for us to proceed with.
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.
We will continue to refine the project through consultation with technical experts and members of the community to ensure it is designed sensitively.
The site was selected as the most suitable location for the development following an exercise that prioritised brownfield and industrial land before moving onto greenfield sites.
There are brownfield sites in the North East that have been considered, and NatPower is seeking consent for a new BESS on the Teesworks site in Redcar. There are no other brownfield sites along the overhead lines that were suitable for us to proceed with.
In this particular case, we identified the sites with the least impact on the environment and on local communities.
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.
The land within our proposal is approximately 93 acres, of which around 56 acres would be developed for battery storage development and transmission substation.
The remaining area, approx. 37 acres, would be set aside for habitat enhancement, tree planting and screening.
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 on 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.
We see three distinct benefits:
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.
ii. 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.
iii. Further areas would be set as for habitat enhancement and tree planting. Our proposals will deliver an increase in biodiversity net gain substantially above the industry standard and allow nature to thrive.
Should the proposed development be granted consent, we will hold supplier events in the area to encourage local businesses to participate in our procurement process. We are committed to hiring local contractors, wherever possible. We are also looking to engage with local colleges and universities to support skills development across the region.
We are currently exploring opportunities to establish a local Operations and Maintenance Centre within the region, which would be the main base for our local operations and maintenance team.
Environment
Best and Most Versatile” (BMV) land refers to agricultural land that is of the highest quality for growing crops. This land is classified as Grade 1, 2, or 3a, meaning it has the best conditions for farming, like good soil, proper drainage, and a favourable climate. These qualities make it highly productive and valuable for agriculture.
In our assessment, the land for the site has been classified as Grade 3b, which is a lower grade. This means the land isn’t considered BMV because it doesn’t have the same high-quality characteristics that make it ideal for farming. While it can still be used for agriculture, it’s not as suitable for the most productive farming activities.
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 nearby roads and footpaths.
The site has been selected in part because it is located c. 460 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.
NatPower aim to keep the battery storage project connected to the national grid infrastructure as much as possible. The only times that the switch would be triggered is during an outage or for periods of maintenance onsite. The occurrences would be very rare, anticipated 2 or 3 times a year.
The development prioritises protecting the existing trees and hedgerows, together with additional planting, to boost local biodiversity.
The project will achieve a biodiversity net gain by preserving habitats, maintaining ecological links, and safeguarding key species.
We have been conducting ecological surveys on the land for over 12 months to ensure that impacts on existing habitats and wildlife will be kept to a minimum.
The enhancements to the site will be designed in collaboration with experts creating a biodiversity net gain substantially above the industry standard.
The proposals will bring the following enhancements:
• New native species hedgerow along the access track
• Existing hedgerows reinforced and gapped up along boundaries
• Native tree planting within the hedgerow
• Native woodland planting
• Species rich grassland planting
• Species rich wetland grass planting
• Installation of bat and bird boxes where appropriate
Safety
Yes. BESS make use of tried and tested technology, much of which we use in our day-to-day lives – for example, in mobile telephones and electric vehicles.
Safety measures would be built into our battery design, such as a fire suppression system, with multiple layers of safety, which would only operate in the very unlikely event of overheating of the batteries. Batteries would also be housed in self-contained units.
We are working with North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, along with other relevant statutory bodies, throughout the development of Mowbray.
As part of our application, we will submit a Verification and Compliance Report. with particular focus against the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) BESS existing Guidance. Although on occasions reference is made to the new Draft 2024 NFCC BESS Guidance, which has been out for consultation, the report will be based on the existing guidance which is used by all UK fire and rescue services and known to planning authorities.
The technical specifications associated with the procurement process are yet to be finalised or the procurement process commenced. Therefore, the assessment criteria and the way forward will be outlined.
Following consent, a comprehensive and Detailed Battery Safety Management Plan (DBSMP) will be submitted to the council.
The report that is submitted as part of the application provides a framework against which a full evaluation of the fire risks of this BESS site can be undertaken.
Overall, should the methodology and assessment criteria of the report be implemented, together with the subsequent test results, Greenfire Solutions (our fire consultants have concluded that the site will comply, where appropriate, with the relevant guidance and regulations and, the potential impacts of fire will be of a sufficiently low level of risk and, appropriately mitigated.
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 the local 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 and unable to spread. Our systems have inbuilt monitoring and suppression mechanisms that provide several layers of safety.
All of NatPower’s BESS sites comply with all applicable UK Health, Safety & Environmental legislation.
The design integrates the recommended guidance from the National Fire Chiefs Council including site design and layout, an on-site emergency water supply, risk mitigation measures, and liaison with North Yorkshire Fire Service.
The batteries are high quality and use the latest battery technology. They fully comply with all recommended industry standards and guidance.
We have employed an independent fire safety expert to ensure the site will accord with the highest standards of fire safety.
Construction
Should Mowbray Energy Storage receive planning permission, we expect to start construction in 2026. It would take up to 24 months to build the project with work finishing in June 2028. During this period, there would be a temporary compound for storage, worker welfare facilities and a site office.
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 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.
We will work with local residents and communities to ensure deliveries are restricted to hours that will cause the least disturbance and we will endeavour to minimise the number of vehicle movement required. This would be outlined in a Construction Traffic Management Plan that would be secured by a planning condition
Activity on site will vary day by day across the construction period. Our current transport strategy involves the main access to the site being via the A19 which provides a main artery route direct from Teesport.
It is anticipated that the vast majority of equipment associated with construction will travel from Teesport, accessing the site via the A19, then a short journey through East Rounton and north to the site entrance on Low Lane.
During operation, the site will be managed remotely with minimal traffic using the local road network, involving weekly site visits.
The CTMP will set out mitigation measures, controls and monitoring to reduce environmental effects during construction, including any noise and vibration. I
t should be noted that the closest residential property to the red line of the site is c. 460 metres away.
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.
Contact our team
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the team by:
Phone: 020 4599 7991
Email: mowbray.bess@natpower.uk
Post:
Mowbray Energy Storage Consultation,
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Mowbray Project Contact
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