The Anonymous Widower

UK Pumped Storage Projects Surge After 40-year Gap

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on International Dam and Waterpower Construction.

This is the sub-heading.

Plans are underway to ensure the UK soon adds to its pumped storage portfolio, which hasn’t seen the development of a new project for over 40 years

This first paragraph gives a summary of the new pumped storage hydro schemes under development.

According to the British Hydropower Association (BHA), although the UK hasn’t witnessed new pumped storage capacity for over 40 years, there are now 11 schemes at various stages of development across Scotland and Wales, with a combined 10 GW and 200 GWh of storage capacity.

Note.

  1. Currently, there is a total of 2.8 GW/24-26 GWh of pumped storage hydro in the UK in four plants.
  2. Two are in Scotland and two are in Wales.

The world’s largest operational pumped storage hydro scheme is the Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station in China, which is 3.6 GW/ 40 GWh.

The second paragraph gives details of Coire Glas, which is one of the largest being constructed.

Mike Seaton from SSE Renewables gave an update on a project his company has been working on – the 1.4GW and 30GWh, £2 billion Coire Glas scheme. Planning consent was given in 2020 and a 1km exploratory tunnel has already been dug. With the final investment decision expected in 2026, the scheme could be generating power by 2033.

Note.

  1. This scheme is almost half the size of the world’s largest scheme in China.
  2. It is planned to take thirteen years to build from planning permission.
  3. The slightly smaller 1.7 GW/9.1 GWh Dinorwig power station took ten years to build and cost half a billion.

Pumped storage hydro powerstations consume a lot of time and money in the building phase.

The View Of An MSP Is Given

Michael Matheson MSP said this.

Working alongside the British Hydropower Association, it is my ambition that frank and open engagement can take place between industry, developers, and communities to ensure that Scotland maximises it’s PSH potential while delivering real improvements for communities and driving towards a sustainable economy and energy mix.

That’s a good attitude.

Scottish Pumped Storage Experience

Under this sub-heading three new large schemes are outlined.

  • Earba – 1.8 GW/40 GWh
  • Fearna – 1.8 GW/36 GWh
  • Glen Earrach Energy – 2 GW/34-46 GWh

Note.

  1. All seem to have at least initial planning permission.
  2. All are larger than Dinorwig.
  3. The three schemes total around 5.6 GW/ 116 GWh.

Scotland seems to be finding places to site these monster pumped storage hydro systems.

Cap & Floor For Pumped Storage Hydro

This paragraph talks about how the authorities and an energy company are talking about a better financial regime, that will encourage investment.

Gilkes Energy is also working with the UK Government and Ofgem to implement the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) ‘Cap & Floor’ mechanism in 2025. This policy is expected to facilitate investment in PSH projects by addressing financial risks. Crompton noted that the mechanism has already attracted private investment for interconnectors and is expected to do the same for pumped storage.

Note.

  1. My experience with truck leasing and peer-to-peer lending, tells me, that if you want billions you can get it.
  2. Goldman Sachs has taken an interest in Highview Power, who are developing liquid-air batteries, which are up to 300 MW/ 3.2 GWh.
  3. Barclays have also invested in specialist batteries to charge electric buses, as I wrote in First Bus To Launch 1MW BESS Unit In Hampshire, Aberdeen To Follow.
  4. From what is said in World’s Largest Wind Farm Attracts Huge Backing From Insurance Giant, I can see big insurance companies like Aviva, helping to fund pumped storage hydro.

With pumped storage hydro, which is very much a scenic asset, the CEO of the investing company can have a nice picture on his wall.

Upgrading Sloy

The upgrading of Sloy hydro power station to a pumped storage hydro powerstation, is unusual, but the sort of practical idea, that engineers think up over a few pints of real ale.

These two paragraphs outline the Upgrade.

Back in April, SSE Renewables submitted a Section 36 planning application to the Scottish Government to convert the existing Sloy Power Station near Loch Lomond into a pumped storage hydro scheme. The proposal would see the station, which has operated since 1950, adapted to include a pumping capacity of up to 100MW, allowing it to deliver up to 16GWh of long-duration electricity storage. If approved, SSE plans to reach a final investment decision by late 2027, with the conversion completed and operational by the end of 2030.

The project would involve installing new pumps at the Inveruglas site, enabling water to be pumped from Loch Lomond to Loch Sloy during low electricity demand periods. This stored water would then be released to generate electricity when demand is higher. The application also includes a proposal to upgrade the station’s existing 32.5MW G4 turbine, which would raise the plant’s total generating capacity from 152.5MW to 160MW.

 

Note.

  1. Sloy has been operating for 76 years.
    It looks like it could be a 160 MW/ 16 GWh pumped storage hydro powerstation.
    I doubt there would be any planning problems.

With Cruachan pumped storage hydro powerstation and the 300 MW/3.2 GWh Highview Power battery at Hunterston, it would be one of a number of assets protecting Glasgow’s electricity supply.

New Ways To Use Water

This section starts with these two paragraphs.

As discussions at a recent webinar hosted by the International Hydropower Association highlighted, other technologies need to be able to step up to provide deep storage in locations where conventional pumped storage is unable to.

Gavin O’Leary is the Head of Electricity Storage Policy at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Explaining that although the UK has 2.8GW of Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) capacity installed in the form traditional pumped storage across four sites, he said: “We have not found the right model in a privatised electricity grid to incentivise development of storage.” And that’s why the country has gone over four decades without adding to its stockpile of long duration storage.

O’Leary also says, that it takes a long time to build.

Scalable Solution

This section starts with these two paragraphs.

Stephen Crosher is the CEO of RheEnergise, a company that is developing High-Density Hydro. Based on traditional pumped hydro storage, it claims to be solving the challenges the technology faces, such as lack of sites, environmental and social issues around flooding valleys, water abstraction, the time taken to consent and construct, plus distances from generation or demand.

RheEnergise’s solution is a form of gravitational energy storage that pumps proprietary fluid uphill. And with the LDES market predicted to be US$4 billion by 2040, with rapid scaling and exponential growth, Crosher says there is a “huge demand for solutions to solve the problems”.

High Density Hydro, the company believes, is a scalable pumped storage solution for the future.

As I thought so too, I invested a small amount of my pension.

Although RheEnergise looks good, there is one small drawback.

Although they’re “looking for small hills and not mountains” for prospective project sites, Crosher admits that elevation can be a prohibiting factor. Consequently in the UK, flatter areas such as East Anglia, along with other countries such as The Netherlands, won’t provide favourable conditions. However a small hill or mine or mine shaft will suffice. In fact, he said the company is currently assessing a 280m mine shaft in Wales.

But I do like the concept of a non-nuclear heavy water, with a specific gravity of 2.5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 12, 2026 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage, Environment, Finance & Investment | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Price Framework Paves Way For Vast Electricity Storage Scheme

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.

This is the sub-heading.

SSE welcomes step forward in plans to build the £1.5bn Coire Glas hydroelectric project

These two paragraphs outline the article.

Ministers have provisionally agreed to a power pricing framework that could pave the way for more pumped storage hydroelectricity projects in Britain, including a gigantic £1.5 billion scheme from SSE that is starting to take shape in the Scottish Highlands.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said it intended to develop a “cap and floor” pricing mechanism that would advance the Coire Glas storage project being developed by SSE, the energy company, and could unlock further pumped storage power stations.

Coire Glas will be one of the largest renewable power projects ever built in the UK.

  • It will have a power output of 1.5 GW, which is comparable with some of the large wind farms in the North Sea or four gas-fired power station or Rolls-Royce SMRs.
  • It will be able to store 30 GWh of electricity and provide 1.5 GW for twenty hours.
  • Coire Glas has a web site.
  • Coire Glas will more than double pumped storage hydroelectric capacity in the UK.

Bath County Pumped Storage Station in Virginia, US claims to be the world’s largest battery, but Coire Glas will be able to store more electricity.

You wait decades for one of these monsters to come along in the UK and SSE also have another on the way.

  • Loch Sloy hydroelectric power station is the largest conventional hydroelectric power station in the UK.
  • It has an output of 152 MW.
  • It opened in 1950 and was largely built by German and Italian prisoners-of-war.

SSE plan to convert Loch Sloy power station into a pumped storage hydroelectric power station.

  • It will be able to store 25 GWh of electricity.
  • Loch Sloy will be the upper lake.
  • Loch Lomond will be the lower lake.
  • The existing dam, upper lake, pipes and powerhouse will be retained.
  • The developments have a web page.

The project is aimed at a commissioning date of 2028.

This paragraph explains how the ‘cap and floor’ mechanism works.

In the scheme, operators would be guaranteed a minimum level of revenue, while consumers would be protected by a price ceiling, above which surplus revenue would be returned to them.

And these two paragraphs give SSE’s reaction.

Finlay McCutcheon, 46, director of onshore Europe at SSE, said the pricing framework was welcome news. He said that a deal for Coire Glas was needed by the end of this year to secure a firm investment decision by early 2026. Planning for the project started in 2007.

“Given the time taken to reach this point, much work is now needed to ensure an effective mechanism is finalised and put in place as early as possible to enable Coire Glas to take final investment decisions and move into construction,” he said.

I believe that the negotiations between the Government and SSE will lead to a monster on Loch Lochy and another one on Loch Lomond.

Conclusion

There are also these pumped storage hydroelectric  schemes under development.

  • Balliemeanoch Pumped Hydro – 1.5 GW/45 GWh
  • Balmacaan Pumped Hydro – 600 MW/15-20 GWh
  • Corrievarkie Pumped Hydro – 1.5 GW/14.5 GWh
  • Fearna Pumped Hydro – 1.8 GW/37 GWh
  • Glenmuckloch Pumped Hydro – 400 MW/1.6 GWh
  • Loch Earba Pumped Storage Hydro – 900MW/33 GWh
  • Loch Kemp Pumped Storage Hydro – 300MW/9 GWh
  • Loch Na Cargeach/Red John Pumped Storage Hydro – 450 MW/2.8 GWh

These total up to 7.4 GW/100+ GWh.

This page on the Strathclyde University web site, gives these GWh figures for the possible amounts of pumped-storage that can be added to existing schemes.

  • Errochty – 16
  • Glasgarnock – 23
  • Luichart – 38
  • Clunie – 40
  • Fannich – 70
  • Rannoch – 41
  • Fasnakyle – 78
  • Tummel – 38
  • Ben Lawers – 12
  • Nant – 48
  • Invermoriston – 22
  • Invergarry – 41
  • Quoich – 27
  • Sloy – 20

That is a total of 514 GWh.

Scotland will be the Saudi Arabia of energy storage.

 

 

 

January 11, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Repurposing The Sloy/Awe Hydro Scheme

The Sloy/Awe hydro-electric scheme was built in the 1930s and 1950s, by the North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board.

  • The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site.
  • There are ten individual power stations; Sloy, Sron Mor, Clachan, Allt-na-Lairige, Nant, Inverawe, Inverawe, Loch Gair, Striven and Lussa.
  • There are four dams; Sloy, Allt-na-Lairige and two dams at Shira.
  • Cruachan used to be part of this scheme, but is now owned by Drax.

This map from the SSE Renewables web site shows the layout of the dams and power stations.

The sizes of the power stations in the scheme are as follows.

  • Sloy – 152.5 MW
  • Sron Mor – 5 MW
  • Clachan – 40 MW
  • Allt-na-Lairige – 6 MW
  • Nant – 15 MW
  • Inverawe – 25 MW
  • Kilmelford – 2 MW
  • Loch Gair – 6 MW
  • Striven – 8 MW
  • Lussa – 2.4 MW

This gives a total power of 261.9 MW.

It should be noted that Cruachan power station is also in this area and in Drax’s Plans For Cruachan, I talked about expanding the station from a 440 MW/7.1 GWh pumped-storage station to one of 1040 MW/7.1 GWh.

Scotland would appear to have 1.3 GW of hydro-electric power between Loch Awe and Loch Lomond.

 

This Google Map shows the same area as the SSE Renewables Map.

Note.

  1. Loch Awe, which is the sixth biggest freshwater loch in Scotland, is in the North-East corner.
  2. Loch Fyne, which is the longest sea loch in Scotland, is in the South-West corner.
  3. Loch Lomond, which is the second biggest freshwater loch in Scotland, is in the South-East corner.
  4. Loch Long reaches up from the South to the West of Loch Lomond.

These are four big lochs.

Strathclyde University And Pumped Storage Power For Scotland

This page on the Strathclyde University gives a list of the pumped storage potential for Scottish hydrogen-electric dams and power stations.

These figures are given for the dams and lochs in the Sloy/Awe scheme.

  • Sloy – 20 GWh
  • Nant – 48 GWh

It would appear that based on research from Strathclyde University, that the Sloy/Awe scheme could support over 60 GWh of pumped storage.

Water Flows In The Sloy/Awe Scheme

Looking at the SSE Renewables map of the Sloy/Awe scheme, water flows appear to be as follows.

  • Loch Awe to Loch Etive via Inverawe power station.
  • Cruachan reservoir to Loch Awe via Cruachan power station.
  • Loch Nant to  Loch Awe via Nant power station.
  • Loch Nant to Loch Etive via Inverawe power station.
  • Lochan Shira to Lochan Sron Mor via Sron Mor power station.
  • Lochan Sron Mor to Loch Fyne via Clachan power station.
  • Allt-na-Lairige reservoir to Loch Fyne via Allt-na-Lairige power station.
  • Loch Sloy to Loch Lomond via Sloy power station.

All the water eventually flows into the sea to the West from Loch Etive and Loch Fyne.

Refurbishing And Repurposing The Sloy/Awe Scheme

Perhaps as the power stations are now over fifty years old, one simple way to increase the generating capacity of the Sloy/Awe scheme, might be to selectively replace the turbines, with modern turbines, that can generate electricity more efficiently.

I suspect that SSE Renewables have an ongoing program of improvements and replacements for all of their hydro-electric stations in Scotland. Some turbines at Sloy power station have already been replaced with larger ones.

Adding Pumped Storage To The Sloy/Awe Scheme

Strathclyde University picked out two places where pumped storage could be added; Sloy and Nant.

I discussed Sloy power station in A Lower-Cost Pumped Hydro Storage System and came to these conclusions.

  • For £40 million, 14 GWh of pumped storage can be created at Sloy.
  • But it could be bigger than 14 GWh, as this page on the Strathclyde University web site, says 20.4 GWh is possible.
  • This would surely, be a project that could be first in the queue, once the environmental problems are solved.

20 GWh or even 14 GWh of pumped storage would be nice to have reasonably quickly.

As I said, this must be a high priority project.

The other project is at Loch Nant.

Note.

  1. Loch Nant is in the Western side of the map.
  2. Nant power station is marked by the red arrow.
  3. The loch to the South of the power station is Loch Awe.
  4. It appears that water can also go from Loch Nant to Inverawe power station to the North-East of the loch.
  5. Inverawe power station is on Loch Awe, which curves round Loch Nant.
  6. The 440MW/7.1 GWh Cruachan pumped-storage power station is on the other side of Loch Awe in the North East corner of the map, with the Cruachan dam and reservoir above.

Strathclyde University says that 48 MWh of pumped-storage could be possible at Loch Nant.

  • Comparing the size of Cruchan reservoir at 7.1 GWh and the larger Loch Nant, gives me hope that Loch Nant could hold upwards of 20-30 GWh.
  • From pictures on this page at Subterranea Britannica, it appears Nant power station has only a single 15 MW turbo-generator.
  • Inverawe power station is a 25 MW power station with a single turbo-generator.

I suspect that pump-turbines could be installed to fill Loch Nant from Loch Awe, just as was done at Foyers, where a 300 MW pumped storage power station was created.

Conclusion

There would appear to be up to two schemes, that could  each add around 20 GWh of pumped storage.

One advantage is that the waters of Loch Awe and Loch Lomond can be used for the lower reservoir.

 

March 1, 2022 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment