HUNTERSTON has been chosen as one of two Scottish sites for Europe’s largest grid-connected battery storage facilities,

Amp Energy’s Scottish Green Battery Complex will be used to store energy from the country’s growing number of windfarms.

It will bring jobs to the area during construction and after completion - but numbers have yet to be revealed.

It will provide Scotland with green energy sources - but at the same time, serious concerns have already been raised about the loss of green space in the area.

It is believed the site will be built at the front side of Campbleton Hill, the A78 roadside.

The Scottish Green Battery Complex is due to be operational in April 2024 and will be comprised of two battery facilities, each providing massive energy storage capacity.

Planning consent was issued by the Scottish government on January 5, with local councils having minimal input thus far.

By storing and managing the dispatch of renewable energy generated from Scottish wind farms, the facilities are aimed at future-proofing the UK’s electricity infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of transmission upgrades.

Following the recent ScotWind tender conclusion, for the planned addition of 25 GW of new renewable generation capacity, the requirement for large-scale energy storage has been in the forefront recently.

Councillor for West Kilbride and Dalry, Todd Ferguson, said he had some concerns about the plans.

He said: “Jobs are always welcomed but not at the expense of green spaces as I’ve consistently explained.

“There have been incidents globally about these battery storage facilities catching fire and some have been known to explode.”

While there have been reports previously of fires at such facilities, none of these appear to belong to Amp Energy.

The councillor is keen to make sure that if the project goes ahead, conditions are in place to offset the loss of the greenbelt site.

These would include tree planting and landscaping.

He added: “I hope there is an archaeological watching brief whatever they do as it is a highly active prehistoric landscape around this part of the world.

“I’ll speak to some colleagues on that too.”

Amp believe this move will be an important step towards Scotland hitting its net-zero targets.

Ben Skinner, vice president of Global Markets at the Toronto-based company, said: “Amp is making a significant investment in vitally needed green infrastructure as the UK transitions to a fully de-carbonised grid.”