Controversial plans for a battery energy storage system (BESS) near Alverdiscott have been turned down by planners after fears that northern Devon villages are being \u201cswallowed up\u201d by industrial energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Torridge District Council<\/a> \u2019s planning committee voted against their officers\u2019 recommendation to approve the scheme on ten acres at Woodtown.<\/p>\n They said the impact and harm on the landscape \u201coutweighed\u201d any benefits.<\/p>\n Sixty four objections were received by the authority and many concerned residents attended the planning meeting at Caddsdown Business Support Centre in Bideford<\/a> on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n They clapped and cheered impassioned speeches by those against the scheme who warned of the \u201ccreeping industrialisation\u201d of the Alverdiscott and Huntshaw parish where 15 per cent of the rolling countryside would be covered in batteries in containers and solar panels if all the schemes already approved and proposed went ahead.<\/p>\n Another BESS site and AI data centre plan are due to be submitted later this year for the edge of the village which would be spread across 850 acres.<\/p>\n The area is favoured by developers because of the good national grid connection and capacity at the Alverdiscott substation.<\/p>\n BESS sites contain thousands of lithium-ion batteries which store energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar and release it back into the grid when demand is high.<\/p>\n The government considers them \u201cessential\u201d to reach clean power goals and ensure secure energy supplies but they are contentious due to the potential fire risks even though incidents are rare.<\/p>\n Ian Ratcliffe, a dairy farmer of West Webbery Farm, said the BESS site would occupy less than one per cent of the 615 acres he managed.<\/p>\n