Scotland has commissioned Europe’s largest battery energy storage system, under the name of Coalburn 1, with a power rating of 500 MW and a capacity of 1 GWh. This means that at full power, the battery can discharge electricity into the grid for two hours. The system is located in South Lanarkshire, near Glasgow, on the site of a former coal mine.
Construction of Coalburn 1 began in late 2023. The project was developed by the Danish investment company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) together with the British firm Alcemi. The main task of such storage facilities is to store surplus electricity during periods of high generation and return it to the grid when production falls or consumption rises.
This is particularly important for Scotland because of its large number of wind farms. A significant portion of the electricity is generated in the north of the UK, while the main consumption centers lie further south, and the transmission capacity between Scotland and England is limited. As a result, during periods of high generation, some wind turbines have to be curtailed. Large batteries allow some of this electricity to be stored and used later, while simultaneously reducing the load on the grid.
Coalburn 1 is connected directly to the transmission grid. It is the first of three major battery projects in Scotland. Coalburn 2 is under construction nearby, while the Devilla system is under development near Kincardine. Each facility is designed for 500 MW of power and 1 GWh of capacity. Once all three are operational, their total power will reach 1.5 GW with the total capacity running into 3 GWh.
At the end of 2025, the total power of battery storage systems in the UK was about 6.8 GW. Their scale is expected to grow substantially: by 2030, as the government aims to increase the installed capacity of these systems to at least 23 GW.
