The British government has tabled a proposal to allow large-scale energy storage projects to be processed through local planning mechanisms, rather than through the national planning regime. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy aims to allow utility-scale projects over 50MW, except pumped hydro, to proceed without government approval, handing power to local communities. Historically, regulations have meant that projects above this threshold have had to go through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project process, which can add up to three years onto project lead times. With additional costs reaching into hundreds of thousands of pounds, small-scale developers have struggled, and have often “capped projects at 49.9 MW to allow larger storage projects to progress” says Madeleine Greenhalgh, policy lead…