PLANNERS have given the go ahead for a 15m-high telecommunications mast on unused industrial land.

The mast at the Watts factory site in Church Road, Lydney, is needed to support a 10 MW “energy barn” which will store power to feed into the National Grid over the next 25 years.

The 500sq m barn, which was approved last April by Forest planners, will store electricity from five transformers in a battery, and the mast will provide a direct ‘line of sight’ microwave link between the on-site substation and the next available substation, across the River Severn in Alveston.

The battery storage unit will provide back up and frequency response energy generation to the National Grid at times of peak demand, when existing generators cannot supply it.

Forest planners approved the Green Hedge Energy barn two scheme after hearing that the nearest Grade II-listed structure to the proposed mast site was the Severn and Wye Railway tramway bridge 160m away.