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Cowley & Hams Hall
Cowley
SUMMARY
A Battery Energy Storage System project near Cowley, Oxford, supporting the delivery of renewable energy infrastructure. Redbay provided Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, visualisation and landscape design input to help balance technical energy requirements with landscape sensitivity, public views and planning consent.
LOCATION
Cowley
CLIENT
BW-ESS Ltd
PARTNERS
Energy Superhub Oxford
SECTOR
Landscape Planning
COMPLETION:
Planning consent granted in 2025
SERVICE TAGS
Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, Planning support and appeals, ZTV Mapping & Visualisation
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Redbay was appointed to support the planning process for a Battery Energy Storage System near Cowley, Oxford. The project formed part of the wider renewable energy infrastructure needed to support grid stability, EV fast charging and future energy networks, while also responding carefully to landscape character, local views and the relationship with existing National Grid infrastructure.
Redbay provided landscape planning, visualisation and landscape design input to support the project through planning. The work included Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, photomontage visualisations and design advice to inform the siting, screening, planting and mitigation strategy for the scheme.
The key challenge was balancing essential clean energy infrastructure with its surrounding landscape context. Battery Energy Storage Systems are technical, land based installations that can introduce hard engineered forms into rural or edge of settlement settings. The project needed careful consideration of visual impact, public viewpoints, landscape character, acoustic mitigation, native planting, ecological corridors and long term landscape integration.
The Cowley BESS project was granted planning consent in 2025, demonstrating how early landscape input can support the delivery of renewable energy infrastructure in sensitive settings.
Redbay’s work helped shape a more considered planning response by using landscape assessment and design together. Strategic siting placed the BESS units close to existing industrial and National Grid infrastructure, reducing the need to introduce new built forms into more open rural land. Visual screening and native buffer planting helped soften views from nearby public locations, while landscape bunds contributed to both visual mitigation and acoustic separation.
The project shows how Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, visualisation and landscape design can work together to make technical infrastructure more acceptable in planning terms. Rather than treating mitigation as an afterthought, the landscape strategy helped connect the operational requirements of the project with the character and sensitivities of the surrounding place.
