Builders have begun work on a huge battery facility and replacement barns at a farm in High Wycombe.

Plans to construct the electricity storage system at Derehams Farm, Derehams Lane, Loudwater were given permission in June last year.

Fresh pictures show metal platforms that will support 184 batteries in containers, which will run with a maximum capacity of 40 megawatts.

The development, which can operate under temporary permission for 40 years, will also include an access track control room, CCTV cameras, fencing, tree and hedgerow planting and other equipment.

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Capbal, the Scotland-based company behind the plans, is an electricity generator licenced with energy regulator Ofgem to supply the National Grid.

Derehams Farm is located 120m east from the Loudwater bulk supply point electricity substation in the next field.

The farm’s new battery storage compound will be able to store energy and quickly release or absorb energy from the power network.

Capbal’s plans state: “When there is not enough power, batteries are discharged to balance under frequency preventing black and brown outs.

“To balance over frequency batteries are charged to prevent dangerous spikes across electricity infrastructure.”

Capbal claims that its new site will ‘comprise a form of carbon zero energy storage to provide balancing energy to the National Grid’.

The new battery facility is an alternative scheme to that granted planning permission by Wycombe District Council in 2019.

New plans for the site were submitted last year after the developer encountered an ‘unforeseen issue’ with the design of the scheme.

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