Further Information

10th August 25

Dear All,

The JTCC and the BESS group had a 'teams' meeting with APATURA representatives and the landowner on Wednesday the 6th August. The meeting revealed the following information regarding their intended next steps:

APATURA is at the pre-application stage and they are intending to go live with their application for the Meikle Dripps Farm 8 Acre BESS late summer, early autumn 2025.

If they get permission for the BESS, they will then approach Ofgem to upgrade the site to an 86 Acre LDES and proceed with the LDES alternative in early 2026.

Busby, Thorntonhall, Jackton and Eaglesham areas are all under siege from so-called Energy Storage development companies. If we don't object as a community to SLC, the ECU and the Scottish government the BESS will go through and, potentially the 86 acre LDES too.

If you are not aware, there is another 40 MW BESS planned for Eaglesham, a Solar and Storage farm planned for development close to Bonnyton Golf Course and, a hydrogen distillation plant planned for Whitelees. In only a matter of years the rural countryside that we all know,use and love will be changed forever, our Village and the greenbelt surrounding Thorntonhall, Busby and the core paths will all be gone or changed forever. The impact will be life-changing.

When the Meikle Dripps Farm BESS application goes live we only have 28 days to object to the ECU about the plan.

The BESS group has developed and included the workflow diagram below to help you understand the stages of the EIA screening and planning application process.

The BESS group is monitoring the ECU website daily and will send out information as soon as the objection period commences.

We will send out points for objection - BUT it is up to you to put your objection into your own words and send it to the ECU. Your personally written objection carries far more weight and is so much more powerful than an Ai generated letter, a copied objection or a copy and pasted letter as these will carry very little weight whatsoever with the recipient, ECU.

People Power is needed, this is our community and greenbelt needs to be saved now

Kind Regards,

The BESS Group

(Information correct as of 15th Aug 25)

Q & A

What is a Long Duration Energy System (LDES)

An LDES is commonly defined as a storage system that can discharge energy for a period of over 10 hours, although the Busby (Thorntonhall) solution seems to have an 8-hour output capacity.

There are four types of LDES, Chemical, Electro Chemical, Mechanical and Thermal. The Busby (Thorntonhall) LDES is likely to be an Electro Chemical i.e. Battery Storage solution.

How New is this Technology?

LDES were introduced by the UK government earlier this year. Busby (Thorntonhall) is the Vanguard for Scottish LDES. We are being used as the ‘Guinea pig’ to see if Apatura can gain approval for this huge scheme in Q3 2025. This is their priority for the moment. If they are successful, our countryside and surroundings will be blighted.

How Big is the Busby (Thorntonhall) LDES?

The Busby LDES, located in Thorntonhall, is 86 Acres in size effectively the size of around 50 Football Pitches. The site will be surrounded by a 2.4m high fence and will have a roads infrastructure within it to support the battery containers, cooling units, transformers and, SuDS (sustainable drainage system - designed to manage stormwater locally and provide an immediate 2-hour firefighting solution.)

Will the LDES have the same issues as a BESS?

Currently we are unaware of what type of storage battery system will be used, if the storage medium is changed then there will be different/reduced fire issues for the batteries; but all the other issues remain and will be increased by the scaling up of the plan.

Further Information

Q & A

Links

SIGN THE PETITION NOW & HELP SAVE OUR COMMUNITY & GREENBELT

Further Information

Q & A

Links

SIGN THE PETITION NOW & HELP SAVE OUR COMMUNITY & GREENBELT

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