Football club to generate income from energy scheme

Inverness Caledonian Thistle looks set to build an energy storage scheme, and gain income from some of the profits the site makes.

The Scottish Championship club has been given planning permission for a battery facility near the city's Fairways Business Park.

The site would store excess energy generated by wind farms and release it back to the Grid at periods of high demand.

Inverness Caley Thistle said some of the income raised would go towards its community outreach programme.

Highland Council officials had recommended that the project should be refused planning permission.

Concerns have been raised over noise pollution and loss of green space.

But councillors at Wednesday's south planning applications committee voted to grant permission by a vote of three to two.

ICT Battery Storage Limited has been created to drive forward the plans.

Club chairman Ross Morrison said securing planning permission marked a "historic day" for Caley Thistle and its community development trust.