UK Has Almost 7GW Of Shovel-Ready Pumped Hydro, Says IHA
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Solar Power Portal.
This paragraph fills out the headline.
Former Australian Prime Minister and current president of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) Malcolm Turnbull has penned an open letter to Rishi Sunak stating that the UK has “almost 7GW of shovel-ready pumped storage hydropower projects with over 135GWh storage capacity”.
Note.
- At 7 GW, it would take 19.2 hours to run out of water.
- Currently, we have about 3GW/24GWh of pumped storage hydro.
- At the end of 2022, we had just 2.4GW/2.6GWh of connected battery storage sites.
It looks like we should start digging.
The Anonymous Widower 
If we were serious about net zero these would already be under construction but instead we will bogged down in enquiries and environmental zealots for the next decade
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | March 16, 2024 |
Drax have problems about expanding Cruachan. I sometimes wonder, if that is spite because of the wood chip.
But I do think, the main reason for lack of progress in this and other areas, is not enough civil servants at the top level, who understand science, engineering and mathematics.
Comment by AnonW | March 16, 2024 |
For sure civil service are not knowledgeable enough but its the bureaucratic processes that big infrastructure projects needs to jump through that is the real issue. Im not advocating a Chinese style approach where all gets swept away for whatever is planned but the government is the only group that can change the planning environment. They’ve talked about changing it for years but nothing ever happens.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | March 16, 2024