Greenfield has secured the planning permission for its 400 MW/800 MWh BESS project at Thornton, East Yorkshire (United Kingdom) (Greenfield press release, 28/04/2026). The BESS project, with its 400 MW capacity and with a direct transmission connection, should have the potential to power about 640,000 homes for up to two hours on a full charge, helping to avoid the emission of approximately 4.8 MtCO₂ over its lifecycle.
Between the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, the UK Infrastructure strategy, the UK Modern Industrial Strategy and the UK AI data center targets, UK energy storage capacity needs are estimated at up to 30 GW by 2030 and an additional 15-20 GW by 2050, across all durations. Of this, the required LDES capacity is estimated at up to 8 GW by 2030 and 15-16.5 GW by 2050, thus necessitating a portfolio approach to LDES.