Please Read:-

PLEASE FILL IN THE COMMENT SECTION AS THIS WILL ASSSIST HELPING TO STOP THIS ALSO CHANGE THE LOCATION AS IT PICKS UP RANDOM ONES. 

Please once signed share as much as you can many thanks!!

Our village of Gwyddelwern/Corwen is under threat. A colossal BESS facility containing lithium batteries is proposed by Natpower, a mere 76 meters from a private property, and dangerously close to our homes, farms, factories, and schools. We are a close-knit community of residents who work hard to cherish our clean environment, families and livelihoods but now face the grim prospect of construction and pollution, lithium battery explosions and the release of toxic plumes.

The BESS blast in Liverpool in 2020 was a 20 MW system which took 59 hours to extinguish.  NatPower want to establish a 1 GW battery storage facility in our village, this is a massive 1000 MWs.  

BESS fires require no oxygen to propagate and lithium is highly reactive, it reacts with water and gives off hydrogen.  This combination of water and hydrogen fluoride, when a lithium battery fire is tackled with water form hydrofluoric acid, an extremely corrosive product which can dissolve concrete.  For this reason many BESS fires are left to burn out, forming toxic plumes requiring evacuations and people to say indoors, leaving their animals, environment, water ways and wildlife to the consequences.  A lesser of two evils of the pollution from water used to put BESS fires killing life and habitats and getting into our water supplies.

In Australia in 2021 a 300 MW project, keep in mind NatPower want to put a 1000 MW (1 GW) project in our community, resulted in 150 firefighters being tasked with putting a fire out and a decision being made to let it burn out for over three days to minimise the pollution resulting from the combination of lithium reacting with water to form a substance which can dissolve concrete.  This fire released toxic smoke, winds carried the toxicity to 30 km2, there were road closures, children were unable to leave school.

Two Firefighters died in Beijing in 2021, two  also died in China in 2021, and in Arizona - USA in 2019 four received serious injuries.  In 2024, 23 people died in a factory in South Korea.  Chemical burns/ingestion is life changing if you survive.  There were a staggering 38 of these fires reported across the world in the three years 2020 to 2023.  South Korea has experienced multiple BESS fires and South Korea's 978 MW system for the grid, billed as Asia's largest battery storage system came online at the end of last year. 

We should not be subject to 1000MW (1 GW) of toxic pollution and the death of our village.   The health and safety of our community and firefighters and pollution are not being addressed.  

Our village is home to a primary school, nursing home, and many beloved pets and farm animals such as cats, dogs, horses, chickens, cows, sheep, and rabbits. In an emergency, we cannot evacuate them all to hotels at short notice, or leave them to starve, suffer chemical burns/inhalations and an agonising death. Moreover, the potential environmental pollution caused by this facility will have far-reaching impacts that are not to be taken lightly.

Instead of answering our questions on safety and the practicalities of living alongside such a site during 'consultation', NatPower prefer to ignore us and talk about planting trees around the lithium batteries.  We live an an area of outstanding natural beauty in rolling mountains, we do not need fast growing trees, we have gardens and a roaming countryside full of trees, owls, bats and we have our ancient trees. 

What is perhaps most distressing is Natpower's refusal to address our legitimate questions and concerns regarding the health and safety and environmental impact on agriculture, livestock the many streams and river close by, the very many implications of such a project. The consultation process, or rather lack thereof, has been nothing short of a shambles, leaving us feeling dismissed and ignored.

Furthermore the Welsh Parliament rejected our petition.

We will not suffer fools gladly, this is our home.

Lithium-ion batteries, the types proposed for this facility, are known to be a huge fire risk. 

We urge not only Natpower but also our local and national government to heed our concerns before irreversible harm is inflicted upon our village, environment, its inhabitants, food chain and our way of life. We demand transparency, communication, and most importantly, a halt to the proposed battery storage site. We should not be forced to trade our safety and peace of mind for corporate benefits.

There are many more suitable industrial locations with road networks, not single track lanes to bulldoze and within reach of fire fighting and hospital services. 

Many villages are being threatened in the UK, stand with us, we will stand with you. Support our fight. Join our call to stop the proposed Natpower Battery Storage site at Gwyddelwern/Corwen. Sign this petition today.