Informing Local Action
Providing information for the community to oppose proposed BESS sites in Rothienorman.
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This website has been created to educate and inform the local community on objecting to proposed Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) sites. Our primary focus is on empowering community members to voice their concerns and stand against BESS developments. Together, we emphasize the collective power of local residents working in unity to protect their environment and rights.
Key dates and next steps
Site 6 = Blackford Energy Park BESS 500MW site
Main application is on Energy Consents Unit - ECU00006121
790 public objections have been recorded on the ECU website.
Aberdeenshire Council submitted their response to the ECU on 12th March 2026 - see APP/2025/1152 for full details.
Aberdeenshire Council as Statutory Consultees on the project have come back with an OBJECT decision to the Project unless certain stipulated conditions are met.
The conditions stipulated by the Council will need to be met by the developer, in most cases prior to commencement of the project build, and be signed off by the Council. If conditions are not met then the proposal would result in ‘impacts that are not acceptable’.
For more detail on what the conditional factors are please see links on Aberdeenshire Council planning portal.
In summary this is a good outcome and we as a group will be looking at what it practically means for the project but our hope would be that the ECU allocate a Reporter to scrutinise the developer's plans in more depth.
We are now waiting for the ECU to process all representations made to them - we will then know if the application will go straight for decision, or if a public inquiry will be held.
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Site 5 = Fairfield (Colpy Road)
Planning application is on Aberdeenshire Council Planning Portal - APP/2025/1015​
Aberdeenshire Council have REFUSED this application - the developer is reviewing options to appeal this decision...
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Pre application completed. Waiting for main application to be submitted on Energy Consents Unit.​​
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Useful information
Public Meeting #2 for Blackford Against BESS
We held a further well-attended public meeting on Tuesday 19th August from 7pm - 9pm Rothienorman Community Bowling Club, Forgue Road, Rothienorman, AB51 8UE; this focussed on a review of the documents submitted to the ECU by the developer for the 500MW site. The presentation slides are available HERE
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Public Meeting #1 for Blackford Against BESS
We held a well-attended public meeting on Wednesday April 23rd from 7pm - 9pm Rothienorman Community Bowling Club, Forgue Road, Rothienorman, AB51 8UE; so that local residents and interested parties could understand the scale of the current and proposed developments and the potential impacts to the local community and environment. The presentation slides are available HERE
The Press & Journal wrote an article covering the meeting - see a copy from 29th April HERE
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Incident Report from Scottish Fire & Rescue Service
Report available from SFRS on the fire at the Overhill BESS site (Site 1) on 21st February 2025 - it states "A 9 ton lithium-ion phosphate battery <was> on fire. Had been damaged in transit and was not installed." CLICK HERE
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Presentation delivered at FRMCC meeting 25th March 2025
Dr Frank Richards has done some modelling of the potential smoke, fire and water run off if there was an incident at the proposed 500MW Blackford Energy Park - this was delivered to the Fyvie, Rothienorman & Monquhitter Community Council meeting on 25th March 2025. It shows that lethal fumes from a fire would reach Rothienorman village within 2 minutes, and that the water run off from fire fighting will contaminate the Black Burn which also runs directly into the village - download a copy of the presentation HERE​
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Map of Current and Proposed BESS Sites
Map of overall site showing the 6 BESS proposals:
Aberdeenshire Council have created a map to supposedly get all energy developments in planning up on their website. You can tick all relevant boxes and get a result. If you focus in on the Blackford site you will be disappointed to see that it only shows 3 of the current 6 BESS sites proposed. If the council can't even include everything, how anyone can ensure that the decisions being made give the correct end picture and our beautiful countryside isn't turned into an industrial mess. We need to ensure that everyone is aware of all of the BESS proposals.
