The government’s planning inspectorate website features a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) safety briefing note that proposes that all Lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage Systems (LiBs) are put on hold. The document appears to have been submitted in conjunction with the Tillbridge Solar Project near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire
The briefing note, prepared by Professor Peter Dobson OBE from Oxford University in February 2025 states: “Some cities and regions in other countries have issued a moratorium on LiBs until adequate safety regulations are in place. This must surely be the most sensible approach in the immediate term.”
Professor Dobson also highlights the lack of government safety regulations: “Given the known risks, and potentially disastrous consequences of LiB failures, it is essential that the Government applies appropriate safety regulations to LiBs as a matter of urgency. Until they do this, such installations are being installed without adequate safety measures in place and in unsuitable locations.”
RWE certainly seems to be trying to get away without applying the recommendations contained in the National Fire Chiefs’ Council (NFCC) guidelines as residents have highlighted in our objection to Malvern Hills District Council. RWE’s safety plan:
- Dismisses the  NFCC recommendations to have access to the required water supply as disproportionate
- Believes that a 3m separation between BESS compounds is sufficient when the NFCC recommends 6m to stop fires spreading between compounds
- Tries to kid the reader of its Battery Safety Management Plan that all the fields that comprise the site have 3 access points when in reality there are 3 access points in total
- this means that in the event of a fire whilst the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, firefighters would be unable to access the compound to manage the fire due the danger or explosion and toxic fumes
A barn fire in 2016 on land on which Monksfield Solar Farm is planned to be built highlighted the problems with fire engines accessing water on the site. Click the image below to read newspaper coverage of the fire, where ironically, the landowner who now wants to use his land for this purpose complained about the lack of water supply.
To us, this seems to be a case of multi-billion euro German power generation company RWE attempting to flout fire safety guidance issued by British Chief Fire Officers to build an industrial scale solar and BESS complex in totally the wrong place not just from a safety perspective but also a landscape perspective.
