Scotland now home to Europe's biggest battery as windy storage site fires up

What's claimed to be Europe’s largest battery has come to Scotland, after a new facility came online in the country’s north.

Located at a site named Blackhillock near the small town of Keith, the battery can deliver up to 200MW of electricity and can store as much as 400MWh. Charging current flows into the facility from offshore and onshore wind turbines. The previous biggest battery titleholder, a project in the English town of Pillswood, came online in late 2022 specced at 98MW/196MWh.

According to Zenobē, the firm operating Blackhillock, the facility will expand to 300MW/600MWh by 2026, at which point it will store enough energy to supply two hours of electricity to 3.1 million homes – more than exist in Scotland, or so we're told.

Unlike Pillswood, Blackhillock eschewed Tesla products. Zenobē has purchased the tech used at the new site from Finnish firm ...