The UK Government has changed planning legislation to encourage the development of larger batteries to store renewable energy from solar and wind farms.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) notes this decision was made to boost investments in larger battery facilities and speed up net zero electricity ambitions.

The relaxation of legislation will enable storage projects above 50MW to be developed in England, while batteries with capacity more than 350MW will be given the go-ahead in Wales.

Although the UK has the largest installed capacity of offshore wind in the world, a significant volume of energy can be lost due to harsh weather conditions affecting transmission – this legislative change will prevent this happening and is expected to help increase the overall use of green electricity and support the reliability of the grid.

Minister for Energy and Clean Growth Kwasi Kwarteng said: “Removing barriers in the planning system will help us build bigger and more powerful batteries, creating more green-collar jobs and a smarter electricity network.”