We are focused on two areas where we feel we can make a difference, firstly hyperscale AI data centres, as this is the biggest threat to both our net zero targets and our landscapes (read on to find out why) and Battery Energy Storage, which is being built on many Green Belts and impacting biodiversity and communities.
Since its very inception nearly 100 years ago, APRS has always acknowledged that our countryside and landscapes change, and that our role is to ensure that decisions leave future generations a landscape as rich and rewarding as the one we inherited. We find inspiration from our history of campaigning on hydro-electric developments in the 30s and 40s and this quote from our annual report covering 1933 typifies the approach we still have today.
“The attitude of the Association towards electrical development is governed by national necessities….. but the Association asks that beauty in nature shall be regarded as itself a great national asset, to be duly appraised as such.”
As an organisation which supports communities to engage with the planning system, we receive many queries from the front line of energy-related development, as well as working very closely with our partner NGOs on climate and environmental policy. Our postbag has been growing and growing with energy related queries, for which we give advice, but we are also working on energy-related policy and you can read about that here.
News on our general energy work
With some Scottish communities reporting an overwhelming number of planning applications for energy infrastructure coming their way, and concerns of anti-climate rhetoric in the media and voiced by some politicians. What should the response of the nature and climate charities be at this moment?
To celebrate our centenary, we are taking time to look at what we can learn from APRS’s history and the relevance for today. Here we look back at the hydro-electric schemes of the 1930s-50s, to see what this can bring to debates about energy in the landscape today.
A report published today reveals that the Scottish Government has never refused planning permission for any large battery storage facility. As a result of this, Scotland now has nearly three times as much consented battery storage capacity, as is needed by 2030, and more than twice as much as is needed by 2050.
Battery Storage Report
Our report published 3 December shows that there is already nearly three times as much Battery Storage with planning permission as Scotland needs by 2030. Use this interactive map to find the location of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) which are approved or pending in the planning system in Scotland. Below you can see two maps showing number and capacity of applications in each Local Authority.
Find where BESS is planned
Read the report
Battery Energy Storage Systems and Planning – Full Report
This report gives the full findings from a research project carried out by APRS between August and November 2025, into Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in Scotland
Battery Energy Storage Systems and Planning – Summary Report
This report summarises the findings from a research project carried out by APRS between August and November 2025, into Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in Scotland.
Our inspiration for the Battery Storage report – case studies
Our Battery Storage report came about because we saw a rise in enquiries from communities about Battery Storage, especially those in Green Belts and that adversely affected biodiversity. One particular enquiry, Lower Bodachra, Aberdeenshire, set us off on a path of examining Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU) decisions with respect to NPF4. And the huge Battery site near Faifley, which was consented on Green Belt near the internationally important Cochno stone showed us that, if consent could be obtained for that site, then nothing was safe.
Our Battery Storage report came about because we saw a rise in enquiries from communities about Battery Storage, especially those in Green Belts and that adversely affected biodiversity. One particular enquiry set us off on a path of examining Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU) decisions with respect to NPF4.
A Battery Storage facility on a 29 Hectare Green Belt site near to the famous Cochno Stone in Faifley has just been consented by Scottish Government. APRS Objected to the 560 MW Whitehall Battery Storage facility which had been heavily opposed locally and will impact on the landscape of an important array of Neolithic cup and ring marked rocks.
We are encouraging our supporters to object to the development of battery storage at Cochno in the green belt, which impacts on core paths and one of the densest and most accessible accumulations of pre-historic rock art in Scotland’s central belt.
Hyperscale AI Data Centres Campaign
Urgent: Can you help fund the project?
Funding requirements for Data Centre campaign
We are seeking urgent funding to scale up a campaign we have started on data centres in Scotland. It is very urgent as there are data centres now in the Scottish planning system that have a energy demand equivalent to the maximum demand of the whole of Scotland. None of these planning applications have yet been decided so this is a key point to campaign.