Scotland « The Anonymous Widower

Consortium Plan To Build & Operate Scotland’s First Low Carbon, Energy Efficient, Soil-Free Vertical Farms In The Central Belt

The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from RheEnergise.

These four paragraphs introduce the project.

A consortium of four British companies have earmarked a series of sites between Dumbarton and Dundee for the locations of Scotland’s next generation of hectare+ scale vertical farms, powered by 100% Scottish renewables. These farms would provide locally produced fresh foods (salads and fruits) to over 60% of the Scottish population.

The vertical farms will help meet the Scottish Government’s ambitions to produce more homegrown fruit and vegetables. Each vertical farm would be powered by locally produced renewable energy.

Next generation vertical farms use advanced soil-free growing techniques and stack crops in specially designed beds and trays. They minimise water, fertiliser and pesticide use which is highly beneficial to the environment and make use of artificial lighting and climate control to get the desired results.

The V-FAST consortium comprises UK Urban AgriTech (UKUAT), Vertegrow Ltd, Light Science Technologies Ltd and RheEnergise Limited, the UK energy storage company.

The press release is certainly worth a detailed read.

April 24, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Energy, Energy Storage, Food | Renewable Energy, RheEnergise, Scotland, Vertical Farming | Leave a comment

ScotWind Offshore Wind Leasing Delivers Major Boost To Scotland’s Net Zero Aspirations

The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release on the Crown Estate Scotland web site.

This is the first two paragraphs.

Crown Estate Scotland has today announced the outcome of its application process for ScotWind Leasing, the first Scottish offshore wind leasing round in over a decade and the first ever since the management of offshore wind rights were devolved to Scotland.

The results coming just months after Glasgow hosted the global COP26 climate conference show the huge opportunity that Scotland has to transform its energy market and move towards a net zero economy.

Some highlights are then listed.

17 projects have been selected out of a total of 74 applications.
A total of just under £700m will be paid by the successful applicants in option fees and passed to the Scottish Government for public spending.
The area of seabed covered by the 17 projects is just over 7,000km2.
Initial indications suggest a multi-billion pound supply chain investment in Scotland
The potential power generated will move Scotland towards net-zero.

This map shows the position of each wind farm.

Note, that the numbers are Scotwind’s lease number in their documents.

Fixed Foundation Wind Farms

These are the six fixed foundation wind farms.

1 – BP Alternative Energy Investments – 859 km² – 2.9 GW
6 – DEME – 187 km² – 1.0 GW
9 – Ocean Winds – 429 km² – 1.0 GW
13 – Offshore Wind Power – 657 km² – 2.0 GW
16 – Northland Power – 161 km² – 0.8 GW
17 – Scottish Power Renewables – 754 km² – 2.0 GW

Adding up these fixed foundation wind farms gives a capacity of 9.7 GW in 3042 km² or about 3.2 MW per km².

Floating Wind Farms

These are the ten floating wind farms.

2- SSE Renewables – 859 km² – 2.6 GW
3 – Falck Renewables Wind – 280 km² – 1.2 GW
4 – Shell – 860 km² – 2.0 GW
5 – Vattenfall – 200 km² – 0.8 GW
7 – DEME Concessions Wind – 200 km² – 1.0 GW
8 – Falck Renewables Wind – 256 km² – 1.0 GW
10 – Falck Renewables Wind – 134 km² – 0.5 GW
11 – Scottish Power Renewables – 684 km² – 3.0 GW
12 – BayWa r.e. UK – 330 km² – 1.0 GW
14 – Northland Power – 390 km² – 1.5 GW

Adding up the floating wind farms gives a capacity of 14.6 GW in 4193 km² or about 3.5 MW per km².

Mixed Wind Farms

This is the single wind farm, that has mixed foundations.

15 – Magnora – 103 km² – 0.5 GW

This wind farm appears to be using floating wind turbines.

I have a few general thoughts.

Are Floating Wind Farms Further Out?

There does appear to be a pattern, where the wind farms that are further from the land tend to be floating wind farms and those closer to the land appear to be fixed.

Consider.

As the water gets deeper, fixed wind turbines will surely get more expensive.
Floating wind turbines are the newer and more unproven technology, so only those bidders, who have done their research and are happy with it, will have bid.

Falck Renewables Wind Seem To Be Working With BlueFloat Energy

In the three Falck Renewables successes with leases 3, 8 and 10, BlueFloat Energy is a partner in the lease.

According to their web site, BlueFloat Energy were very much involved in WindFloat Atlantic, where this is said.

Top members of our team were key contributors to the development and construction of the WindFloat Atlantic project from concept to Final Investment Decision to commissioning. This 25 megawatt (MW) floating offshore wind project in Portugal marked a turning point in the offshore wind industry as it was the first floating offshore wind project to secure bank financing. With 3 x MVOW’s 8.4 MW turbines, the WindFloat Atlantic project was the world’s first semi-submersible floating wind project and continental Europe’s first floating wind project.

So do Falck Renewables intend to use WindFloat technology in their areas, which are to produce a total of 2.7 GW?

Perhaps a fleet of two hundred floating wind turbines based on WindFloat technology each with a capacity of 14 MW would be ideal.

Wind turbines would be interchangeable between all three farms.
There could be a few standby turbines to allow for maintenance.
It would be possible to borrow a turbine to explore a new site.

All it would need is technology to be able to position and connect a turbine into the wind farm and disconnect and remove a turbine from the wind farm, with simple procedures.

Did BP Avoid the Floating Wind Farms?

BP, who are relatively new to offshore wind, only had one success, for a large fixed wind farm. So did they avoid the floating wind farms?

Do Shell and Scottish Power Have A Bigger Plan?

Shell and Scottish Power were successful with leases 4 and 11, which are reasonably close together.

They also won lease 17, which I wrote about in MacHairWind Wind Farm, where I concluded this.

The MacHairWind wind farm seems a well-positioned wind farm.

It is close to Glasgow.
It can be used in tandem with the Cruachan pumped hydro power station.
It will have access to the Western HVDC Link to send power to the North-West of England.

Is Scotland replacing the 1.2 GW Hunterston B nuclear power station with a 2 GW wind farm, with help from Cruachan and other proposed pumped storage hydro schemes to the North of Glasgow?

So did Shell and Scottish Power get the pick of the bunch and will build two large floating wind farms close together?

Shell and Scottish Power seem to be using French company; Eolfi’s floating wind technology.

Why Do Floating Wind Farms Have A Higher Density?

The floating wind farms have an average energy density of 3.5 MW per sq. km, whereas the fixed wind farms only manage 3.2 MW per sq. km.

It may be only ten percent, but does that help the economics? It certainly, wouldn’t make them worse.

I do wonder though, if the reason for the higher density is simply that a floating turbine can be bigger, than a corresponding fixed turbine.

I also have a few more specific thoughts about individual farms.

Lease 15 – The Odd Bid Out

In any design competition, there is usually at least one design, that is not look like any of the others.

In the successful bids for the ScotWind leases, the bid from Magnora ASA stands out.

The company has an unusual home page on its offshore wind web site.
This page on their web site outlines their project.
It will be technology agnostic, with 15MW turbines and a total capacity of 500MW
It will use floating offshore wind with a concrete floater
It is estimated, that it will have a capacity factor of 56 %.
The water depth will be an astonishing 106-125m
The construction and operation will use local facilities at Stornoway and Kishorn Ports.
The floater will have local and Scottish content.
The project will use UK operated vessels.
Hydrogen is mentioned.
Consent is planned for 2026, with construction starting in 2028 and completion in 2030.

This project could serve as a model for wind farms all round the world with a 500 MW power station, hydrogen production and local involvement and construction.

I discuss this project in more detail in ScotWind N3 Offshore Wind Farm.

A Conclusion About Floating Wind

The various successful bids in this round of Scottish wind farm leases can be split by capacity into two groups.

Floating + Mixed – 15.1 GW – 61 %
Fixed – 9.7 GW – 39 %

Note that I have included Magnora’s successful mixed bid with the successful floating bids, as it uses floating wind turbines to generate electricity.

The over 60 % of successful bids involving floating wind farms, indicates to me, that the day of floating wind farms has arrived.

March 27, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Energy | BlueFloat Energy, BP, Falck Renewables/Renantis, Floating Wind Power, MachairWind Wind Farm, Magnora ASA, Scotland, ScottishPower, ScotWind Leasing, ScotWind N3 Wind Farm, Shell, SSE, WindFloat, WindFloat Atlantic | 17 Comments

Is This The World’s Most Ambitious Green Energy Solution?

In the 1970s and 1980s, when I was developing Artemis, which was the first desk-sized project management system, we were heavily involved in North Sea Oil, with dozens of systems in Aberdeen. As Norway developed the oil business on the other side of the North Sea, the number of systems there grew to at least twenty.

Increasingly, I became aware of a Norwegian company called Kværner, which seemed to have large numbers of Artemis systems.

In 2002, Kværner merged with Aker Maritime and this eventually led to the formation of Aker Solutions in 2008, which is a company that is headquartered in Oslo and employs nearly 14,000.

According to Wikipedia, the Kværner name was dropped somewhere along the way, as non-Scandinavians have difficulty pronouncing Kværner.

Aker Solutions appears to be wholly Scandinavian-owned, with Aker ASA owning a third of the company.

They are a very respected company, when it comes to offshore engineering for oil and gas and wind projects.

Aker ASA also have a subsidiary called Aker Horizons, which has this web site, where they call themselves a planet-positive company.

This page on the Aker Horizons is entitled Northern Horizons: A Pathway for Scotland to Become a Clean Energy Exporter.

These first two paragraphs outline the project.

A vision to utilise Scottish offshore wind resources in the North Sea to make the country an exporter of clean energy has been unveiled at the COP 26 climate change conference in Glasgow.

The Northern Horizons Project has been unveiled by Aker Horizons’ portfolio companies Aker Offshore Wind and Aker Clean Hydrogen, who have the technical know-how and expertise to realise the project, and DNV, the independent energy expert and assurance provider.

Various targets and ambitions are listed.

10 GW of renewable energy in the North Sea.
5 GW of green hydrogen.
Giant turbines nearly as tall as the London Shard on floating platforms more than 130km from Shetland.
Enough liquid hydrogen will be produced to power 40 percent of the total mileage of local UK buses.
Enough synthetic fuel to make 750 round trips from the UK to New York.

A completion date of 2030 for this project is mentioned.

This article on The Engineer is entitled Northern Horizons Plans Clean Energy Exports For Scotland.

The article is dated the 4th of November 2021 and starts with this sub-heading and an informative video.

Aker Horizons’ new initiative, Northern Horizons, aims to make Scotland a clean energy exporter by utilising offshore wind resources in the North Sea.

There is an explanatory graphic of the project which shows the following.

Floating wind turbines.
A floating DC substation.
A floating hydrogen electrolyser.
An onshore net-zero refinery to produce synthetic aviation fuel and diesel.
A hydrogen pipeline to mainland Scotland.
Zero-carbon energy for Shetland.

It is all very comprehensive.

These are some other thoughts.

Project Orion

Project Orion how has its own web site and the project that seems to have similar objectives to Northern Horizons.

The title on the home page is Building A World-Leading Clean Energy Island.

There is this statement on the home page.

Orion is a bold, ambitious project that aims to transform Shetland into the home of secure and affordable clean energy.

We will fuel a cleaner future and protect the environment by harnessing the islands’ renewables potential, using onshore and offshore wind, tidal and wave energy.

The graphic has similar features to that Northern Horizons in the article on The Engineer, with the addition of providing an oxygen feed to Skyrora for rocket fuel.

German Finance

I feel very much, that the Germans could be providing finance for developments around Shetland, as the area could be a major source of hydrogen to replace Vlad the Mad’s tainted gas.

In Do BP And The Germans Have A Cunning Plan For European Energy Domination?, I described how BP is working with German utilities and finance to give Germany the hydrogen it needs.

NorthConnect

The NorthConnect (also known as Scotland–Norway interconnector) is a proposed 650 km (400-mile) 1,400 MW HVDC interconnector over the floor of the North Sea.

It will run between Peterhead in North-East Scotland and Norway.

This project appears to be stalled, but with the harvesting of more renewable energy on Shetland, I can see this link being progressed, so that surplus energy can be stored in Norway’s pumped storage hydro.

Icelink

Icelink is a proposed electricity interconnector between Iceland and Great Britain.

It would be the longest undersea interconnector in the world, with a length of 620 to 750 miles.
It would be a 800–1,200 MW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link.
National Grid is part of the consortium planning to build the link.
Iceland has a surplus of renewable energy and the UK, is the only place close enough for a connection.

I believe that if Icelink were to be built in conjunction with energy developments on and around Shetland, a more powerful and efficient interconnector could emerge.

Conclusion

This ambitious project will transform the Shetlands and the energy industry in wider Scotland.

This project is to the North-East of Shetland, but the islands are surrounded by sea, so how many other Northern Horizons can be built in a ring around the islands?

March 22, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Energy | Aker, Aker Solutions, Artemis, COP26, Green Hydrogen, Iceland, Icelink, Kværner, Natural Gas, North Sea Oil And Gas, NorthConnect, Northern Horizons, Norway, Oil, Project Management, Project Orion Shetlands, Scotland, Shetland, Skyrora | 4 Comments

Union Demands Withdrawal Of All HSTs After Carmont Report

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

This is the first paragraph.

The TSSA union says it has written to the regulator demanding the immediate withdrawal of all surving HSTs, after new revelations in the Carmont derailment. report.

Manuel Cortes of the TSSA feels that the corrosion problem found in the train that crashed at Carmont, may be present in other trains.

He finishes with this this statement.

Frankly, it’s time to ban the HSTs. They were great in their day, but that day is nearly 50 years ago now and they simply aren’t up to modern safety standards.

I must admit, that I tend to agree with him, on this last point.

Scotrail have the following fleet of Inter7City trains.

There are 52 Class 43 power cars and 120 Mark 3 coaches, which are arranged as nine four-car and seventeen five-car trains.
The trains have sliding passenger doors.
The trains meet all the regulations for Persons of Reduced Mobility.
The trains have wi-fi and power points.
They seem to run at up to 100 mph, as against the 125 mph for InterCity 125‘s in the past.
The power cars have generally been reengined with modern MTU 16V4000 R41R diesel engines.

But they are now on average over forty years old.

In Battery And Hydrogen Trains For ScotRail ‘Could Make Scotland A Global Leader’ In Zero-Emission Transport, which is based on an article in the Scotsman with the same title, I said this.

Other points from the article.

Talgo appear to have passed the story to Scotland on Sunday.
Three routes are mentioned; Borders Railway, Fife Circle and Glasgow-East Kilbride.
The new trains could help phase out diesel trains by 2035, which is Scottish Government policy.
The Inter7City trains might be replaced by 2030.
Talgo hopes to win an order for its factory in Fife.

Talgo’s Managing Director is quoted as saying, they are starting testing of a hydrogen and electric train with a range of 311 miles.

Consider.

I wrote about this train in Talgo To Begin Fuel Cell Loco Trials.
Talgo’s hydrogen and electric train would be ideal for Scotland’s railways of which only forty percent are electrified.
A four or five-car high specification hydrogen and electric train would be ideal for the Inter7City routes, if it were built specifically for the routes.
The range would cover all of Scotland.
Hydrogen hubs are being planned all over Scotland.
Scotland have 26 Inter7City trainsets.

This could be a rather nice order to fund the factory and test all the trains close to the factory.

There could be as many as fifty trains.
They would probably have an operating speed of 100 mph on electricity.
Would the speed on hydrogen be 100 mph or perhaps a bit less?
They would be able to use 25 KVAC overhead electrification, where it exists.
They could have a length of three, four or five cars.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see three or four car trains for the suburban trains and four or five car trains for the Inter7City replacements.

March 14, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Inter7City, InterCity 125, Mark 3 Coach, Scotland, ScotRail, Talgo, TSSA | 13 Comments

Battery And Hydrogen Trains For ScotRail ‘Could Make Scotland A Global Leader’ In Zero-Emission Transport

The title of this post is the same as that of this article in the Scotsman.

This is the first paragraph.

New fleets of cutting-edge trains expected to include battery and hydrogen power are to be ordered for ScotRail which the rail industry believes will put Scotland at the forefront of zero-emission transport.

Wind Farms On The East Coast Of Scotland

This map shows the proposed wind farms off the East coast of Scotland.

There are five wind farms in the map.

The green area is the cable corridor for Seagreen 1a
Inch Cape is the odd-shaped wind farm to the North and West of the green area
Seagreen at the top of the map, to the North of Inch Cape.
Marr Bank with the pink NE-SW hatching
Berwick Bank with the green NW-SE hatching
Neart Na Gaoithe is edged in blue to the South of the green area.

Berwick Bank and Marr Bank are both owned by SSE and appear to have been combined.

These are some more details on each of the now four wind farms.

Seagreen

These are details of the Seagreen wind farm.

Seagreen will be Scotland’s largest and the world’s deepest offshore wind farm when complete.
The first phase will have 114 turbines and a capacity of 1075 MW.
It will connect to the grid at a new substation at Tealing near Dundee.
The cables will run to the North of the Inch Cape wind farm.
It will be completed in 2023.
The second phase (1a), will have 36 turbines.
It may have larger turbines.
The cables will run in the green area to Cockenzie in East Lothian.

This press release from SSE is entitled Another Milestone For Scotland’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm As 4,800 Tonnes Offshore Platform Completed.

This is the first paragraph.

The topside forms the backbone of the offshore wind farm. At 40 metres long, 45 metres wide and 15 metres high, the heavyweight superstructure’s role is to collect and manage 1,075MW of power generated by the 114 Vestas wind turbines before transferring it ashore via around 60km of offshore subsea cabling.

This platform is used to connect the 114 turbines to the shore.

Inch Cape

This paragraph from the home page of the Inch Cape web site, describes the wind farm.

The Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm, currently in late stage development, will see up to 72 turbines located 15 km off the Angus Coast and connect to the National Grid at Cockenzie, East Lothian. Once complete, it will be one of Scotland’s largest single sources of renewable energy and power up to 1 million homes with clean electricity.

The home page says it will generate up to 1 GW of electricity.

Neart Na Gaoithe

This sentence for the Wikipedia entry for the Neart Na Gaoithe web site describes the wind farm.

It is being developed by Mainstream Renewable Power at a cost of £1.4bn. Offshore work began in 2020, with completion planned for 2023.

The Wikipedia entry says it will generate up to 450 MW of electricity.

Berwick Bank

These two paragraphs from the project page of the Berwick Bank web site describes the wind farm.

Located in the North Sea, in the outer Firth of Forth, Berwick Bank Offshore Wind Farm has the potential to deliver up to 4.1 GW of installed capacity, making it one of the largest offshore opportunities in the world.

Berwick Bank Wind Farm is in the development stage and previously the project was comprised of two separate proposals, Berwick Bank Wind Farm and Marr Bank Wind Farm. Following initial rounds of consultation, it has been decided to combine our proposals into one single opportunity – Berwick Bank Wind Farm.

At 4.1 GW, Berwick Bank is a big wind farm.

The capacity of the four farms can be summarised as follows.

Seagreen – 1075 MW
Neart Na Gaoithe – 450 MW
Inch Cape – 1000 MW
Berwick Bank – 4100 MW

This gives a total of 6625 MW.

March 9, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Energy | Berwick Bank Wind Farm, Inch Cape Wind Farm, Neart Na Gaoithe Wind Farm, Offshore Wind Power, Scotland, Seagreen Wind Farm, SSE, Wind Power | 4 Comments

Scotland’s Energy Storage

I have been using the web sites of Drax Group, SSE Renewables and ILI Group, and this page from Strathclyde University to look at various hydro-electric schemes to store energy using the tried-and-tested method of pumped hydro.

I have analysed these schemes.

Affric/Beauly

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

Situated about 16 kilometres to the west of Inverness, Beauly is the gateway to the Affric/Beauly hydro electric scheme.

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 100.3 MW.

My analysis in Repurposing The Affric/Beauly Hydro-Electric Scheme, showed the following.

Research from Strathclyde University, says that the Affric/Beauly scheme could support 78 GWh of pumped storage in one scheme at Fasnakyle.
Adding pumped storage facilities to the Affric/Beauly hydro-electric scheme, with a capacity of upwards of a conservative 50 GWh, should be possible.

Generating capacity and system operation could be improved by replacing some or all of the 1950s and 1960s turbines with modern units and using modern control systems.

The Affric/Beauly hydro-electric scheme could be augmented by upwards of 50 GWh of storage.

Balliemeanoch

This new scheme is being developed by the ILI Group.

From what is published in the press. it appears to be a giant 1.5 GW/45 GWh project.

In Thoughts On The Balliemeanoch Pumped-Hydro Scheme, I analyse the plan.

The Balliemeanoch hydro-electric scheme could add 45 GWh of storage.

Balmacaan

This new scheme is being developed by SSE Renewables.

My searches in A Possible Balmacaan Pumped Storage System, showed the following.

It has a 600 MW generating capacity and I suspect would have about 15-20 GWh of storage.

The Balmacaan hydro-electric scheme could conservatively add upwards of 15 GWh of storage.

Breadalbane

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

The Breadalbane scheme is set in the mountainous region around Loch Lyon, Loch Tay and Loch Earn in Perthshire.

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 168.4 MW.

My analysis in Repurposing The Breadalbane Hydro-Electric Scheme, showed the following.

Research from Strathclyde University, says that the Breadalbane scheme could support 12 GWh of pumped storage in one scheme at Ben Lawers.
I believe a similar scheme could be built South of Loch Tay to add a similar amount of pumped storage capacity.

As with the Beauly/Affric scheme, generating capacity and system operation could be improved by replacing some or all of the 1950s and 1960s turbines with modern units and using modern control systems.

The Breadalbane hydro-electric scheme could be augmented by upwards of 12 GWh of storage.

Coire Glass

This new scheme is being developed by SSE Renewables and the project has its own web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

Coire Glas is a hydro pumped storage scheme with a potential capacity of up to 1500MW. Coire Glas is an excellent pumped storage site with a large lower reservoir (Loch Lochy) and a significant elevation of more than 500m between the lower and the new upper reservoir site over a relatively short distance.

It is planned to generate a maximum power of up to 1.5 GW for twenty hours, which indicates an energy storage capacity of 30 GWh.

In SSE Renewables Launches 1.5GW Coire Glas Construction Tender, I talk about the current status of the project.

The Coire Glas hydro-electric scheme could add 30 GWh of storage.

Conon

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

The Conon scheme lies within the northwest Highlands, broadly between Inverness and Ullapool. Electricity generation started here when the Ross-shire Electricity Supply Company built the small Falls of Conon hydro electric power station in the 1920s.

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 107.2 MW.

My analysis in Repurposing The Conon Hydro-Electric Scheme, showed the following.

Research from Strathclyde University, says that the Conon scheme could support up to 131 GWh of pumped storage.
Adding pumped storage facilities to the Conon hydro-electric scheme, with a capacity of upwards of a conservative 30-40 GWh, should be possible.

As with other schemes, generating capacity and system operation could be improved by replacing some or all of the 1950s turbines with modern units and using modern control systems.

The Conon hydro-electric scheme could be augmented by upwards of 30 GWh of storage.

Corrievarkie

This new scheme is being developed by the ILI Group.

From the planning application it appears to be a 600 MW/14.5 GWh project.

In Corrievarkie Pumped Storage Hydro Project, I analyse the plan.

The Corrievarkie hydro-electric scheme could add 14.5 GWh of storage.

Cruachan

Cruachan is a pumped-storage power station, that is owned by Drax, which have a comprehensive web site for the power station.

It has an output of 440 MW.
It has an energy storage capacity of 7.1 GWh
It can can reach full generating capacity in less than 30 seconds.

In Drax’s Plans For Cruachan, I analyse Drax’s plans, which they call Cruachan 2.

It will be a 600 MW power station.
It will be to the East of the current power station.
More than a million tonnes of rock would be excavated to build the power station.

The existing upper reservoir, which can hold 2.4 billion gallons of water, has the capacity to serve both power stations.

These was my conclusions.

It looks like very good engineering to me.

There is a good chance, that on most nights, the reservoir will be filled using wind energy
The maximum output of the Cruachan power station has been more than tripled from 323 to 1010 MW.
There has been no increase in the size of the Cruachan reservoir.

Scotland will now have a GW-sized hydro-electric power station.

It will not be very much smaller than Sizewell B nuclear station.

Foyers

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

The current Foyers Power Station operates quite differently to conventional hydro electric power stations. Foyers hydro scheme consists of one pumped hydro power station and one hydro power station and one major dam..

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 305 MW.

My research and analysis in The Development Of The Foyers Pumped Storage Scheme, showed the following.

Foyers is a modern pumped-hydro scheme with a capacity of 10 GWh.
The updating of the original 1896 hydro-power station to a modern pumped-storage system in 1974 is a superb example of hydro-power engineering.

The development of Foyers power station is an example, that shows what can be done in other hydro-electric schemes around Scotland and the rest of the world.

Galloway

Galloway is a hydroelectric scheme, that is owned by Drax, which have a comprehensive web site for their two hydroelectric schemes in Scotland; Galloway and Lanark.

Galloway has a total output of 109 MW.
It has six power stations at Drumjohn, Kendoon, Carsfad, Earlstoun, Glenlee and Tongland.
There is no energy storage
It is what is known as a run-of-the-river scheme.

The scheme opened in the 1930s.

Glendoe

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

In 2009, the first major hydro electric power station to be built in Scotland for almost 30 years, Glendoe on the eastern shore of Loch Ness, began generating electricity.

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 106.5 MW.

My analysis in Glendoe Hydro Power Station, led me to conclude, that engineers will look at this scheme built in the early years of this century to convert it to a pumped storage facility. It might even have been designed for conversion to a pumped storage station, as it was built after the successful conversion of Foyers power station. Comparing the size of the upper lake to Foyers and other schemes, I would estimate it could easily provide in excess of 15 GWh of storage.

The Glendoe hydro-electric scheme could be augmented by upwards of 15 GWh of storage.

Glenmuckloch

This is a small scheme promoted by Buccleuch, that generates 4 MW and stores 1.6 GWh in a disused opencast coal mine.

My analysis in The Glenmuckloch Pumped Storage Scheme, led me to this conclusion.

This project appears to have stalled, but I do like the idea of using a disused mine to store energy and the engineering behind the project.

I will ignore it in my conclusions of this post.

Great Glen

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

The Great Glen runs for more than 100 kilometres from Inverness in the northeast, to Fort William in the southwest, following a geological fault line that divides north and south Scotland.

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 112.7 MW.

My analysis in Repurposing The Great Glen Hydro-Electric Scheme, showed the following.

Research from Strathclyde University, says that the Great Glen scheme could support up to 90 GWh of pumped storage.
Adding pumped storage facilities to the Great Glen hydro-electric scheme, with a capacity of upwards of a conservative 30 GWh, should be possible.

As with other schemes, generating capacity and system operation could be improved by replacing some or all of the 1950s and 1960s turbines with modern units and using modern control systems.

The Great Glen hydro-electric scheme could be augmented by upwards of 30 GWh of storage.

Lanark

Lanark is a hydroelectric scheme, that is owned by Drax, which have a comprehensive web site for their two hydroelectric schemes in Scotland; Galloway and Lanark.

Lanark has a total output of 17 MW.
It has two power stations at Bonnington and Stonebyres.
There is no energy storage
It is what is known as a run-of-the-river scheme.

The scheme opened in the 1920s.

Red John

This new scheme is being developed by ILI Group and the project has its own web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

Between 2007 and 2015, the total installed capacity of renewables electricity in Scotland has more than doubled. Due to its intermittent nature, the rise in renewable generation has resulted in increased demand for flexible capacity to help meet energy balancing requirements for the national grid system.

Pumped storage hydro is considered by the Directors to be the most developed and largest capacity form of grid energy storage that currently exists. This can help reduce renewable energy curtailment and therefore promote grid stability.

The web site says this about the project.

The scheme has an output of 450 MW.
The storage capacity is 2.8 GWh.
The scheme has planning consent.
The project is budgeted to cost £550 million.
The construction program indicates that the scheme will be completed by the end of 2025.

It also has very detailed maps.

I wrote about the project in Red John Pumped Storage Hydro Project, where I came to these conclusions.

This scheme has the output of a large gas-fired power station for just over six hours.
The finances must add up, as no-one would back a scheme like this if they didn’t get an adequate return on their money.

It may only be a small scheme, that is a quarter of the size of the existing nearby Foyers pumped-storage scheme, but as it is shovel-ready, we should start digging.

The Red John hydro-electric scheme would add 2.8 GWh of storage.

Shin

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

Shin is Scotland’s most northerly hydro electric scheme. It utilises water from a 650 square kilometre catchment area in Sutherland, including Loch Shin, and water from the River Cassley and River Brora.

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 32.1 MW.

My analysis in Shin Hydro Power Scheme, showed the following.

I would be very surprised if any pumped storage were to be added to this scheme.
This 1950s scheme has been partially updated.

Perhaps some more updating would be worthwhile.

Sloy/Awe

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

With the exception of Cruachan Power Station which was commissioned in 1965, major work on the Sloy/Awe scheme was completed by 1963, the year the Beatles had their first No 1 hit with From Me To You – and a world away from the immediate post-war austerity being experienced when Sloy Power Station was commissioned just 14 years earlier.

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 261.9 MW.

My analysis in Repurposing The Sloy/Awe Hydro-Electric Scheme, showed the following.

Research from Strathclyde University, says that the Sloy/Awe scheme could support up to 68 GWh of pumped storage.
Adding pumped storage facilities to the Sloy/Awe hydro-electric scheme, with a capacity of upwards of a conservative 40 GWh, should be possible.

As with other schemes, generating capacity and system operation could be improved by replacing some or all of the 1930s and 1950s turbines with modern units and using modern control systems.

The Sloy/Awe hydro-electric scheme could be augmented by upwards of 40 GWh of storage.

Tummel Valley

The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site, which introduces the scheme like this.

The Tummel scheme stretches from Dalwhinnie, famous for its whisky distillery, in the north, to the remote Rannoch Station in the west, and the highly-popular tourist town of Pitlochry in the east.

Currently, it generates a maximum power of 309.2 MW.

My analysis in Repurposing The Tummel Hydro-Electric Scheme, showed the following.

Research from Strathclyde University, says that the Tummel Valley scheme could support up to 135 GWh of pumped storage.
Adding pumped storage facilities to the Tummel Valley hydro-electric scheme, with a capacity of upwards of a conservative 40-60 GWh, should be possible.

As with other schemes, generating capacity and system operation could be improved by replacing some or all of the 1930s and 1950s turbines with modern units and using modern control systems.

The Tummel Valley hydro-electric scheme could be augmented by upwards of 40 GWh of storage.

A Simple Summary

These are deliberately conservative figures from my analysis.

Affric/Beauly – 50 GWh
Balliemeanoch – 45 GWh
Balmacaan – 15 GWh
Breadalbane – 12 GWh
Coire Glas – 30 GWh
Conon – 30 GWh
Corrievarkie – 14.5 GWh
Glendoe – 15 GWh
Great Glen – 30 GWh
Red John – 2.8 GWh
Sloy/Awe – 40 GWh
Tummel Valley – 40 GWh

Note.

With new storage like Balliemeanoch, Balmacaan, Coire Glas, Corrievarkie and Red John, I am using published figures where they are available.
With figures from existing schemes,I am being deliberately very conservative.

That is a total of 324.3 GWh with 107.3 GWh down to new storage

Strathclyde University’s Prediction

This page on the Strathclyde University web site, gives these 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 or 621.3 GWh if you include new storage.

Conclusion

Scotland and the UK, has been left a superb legacy for the future by the pioneering work of Scottish engineers and the North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board.

Most of these assets are now in the hands of two groups; Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Drax Group.

Having seen several of the schemes detailed in this post, in the last few weeks, on Michael Portillo’s; Great Coastal Railway Journeys, it does seem that both groups are looking after their assets.

SSE and Drax also seem to be doing their best to publicise the success of one of the UK’s high-value, but low-profile engineering assets.

I believe that we should do a survey that would identify the following.

What needs to be done to allow each aqueduct, dam, power station and tunnel to continue to function until a given date in the future.
Which of the individual schemes can be updated to larger schemes or pumped storage systems.

We would then be able to device a long term plan to create a world-class hydro-electric power scheme for Scotland.

Scotland should be able to provide upwards of 400 GWh of pumped-storage.

This article on Current News is entitled Up To 24GW Of Long Duration Storage Needed For 2035 Net Zero Electricity System – Aurora.

These are the first three paragraphs.

Deploying large quantities of long duration electricity storage (LDES) could reduce system costs and reliance on gas, but greater policy support is needed to enable this, Aurora Energy Research has found.

In a new report, Aurora detailed how up to 24GW of LDES – defined as that with a duration of four hours or above – could be needed to effectively manage the intermittency of renewable generation in line with goals of operating a net zero electricity system by 2035. This is equivalent to eight times the current installed capacity.

Additionally, introducing large quantities of LDES in the UK could reduce system costs by £1.13 billion a year in 2035, cutting household bills by £26 – a hot topic with energy bills on the rise as a result of high wholesale power prices.

The report also says that long duration storage could cut carbon emissions by ten million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

It appears to me, Scotland can provide more than enough energy storage for the UK and the Island of Ireland, even if the seas around the British Isles were almost completed covered by wind turbines.

In addition, to the works in Scotland to update the various hydroelectric schemes, there would need to be more interconnectors around the UK and probably to close countries like Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway.

There could even be an interconnector between Iceland and Scotland, so Iceland’s abundance of zero-carbon electricity could be exported to Europe.

March 2, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Energy, Energy Storage | Buccleuch Group, Cruachan Power Station, Drax Power Station, Engineering, Iceland, Island Of Ireland, Loch Quoich, Michael Portillo, North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board, Pumped Storage Hydroelectricity, Scotland, SSE, Strathclyde University, Wind Power | 2 Comments

The Glenmuckloch Pumped Storage Scheme

This article on the BBC is entitled Glenmuckloch Opencast Mine Hydro Energy Scheme Approved.

It appears to be capable of generating 400 MW.
Energy storage capability appears to be 1.6 GWh.
It is to be built in a disused opencast coal mine.

It is only a small scheme, but it does seem to have planning approval.

The Scheme has a web page, which is entitled Glenmuckloch Pumped Storage Hydro

It is being promoted by Buccleuch and 2020 Renewables and respected consultants; Arup has produced this Non-Technical Summary.
The Non-Technical Summary is a very professional document and an interesting read.
2020 Renewables are now part of Forsa Energy.
It is certainly an interesting way of removing the remains of an opencast coal mine.

According to this article on the BBC, which is entitled Buyer Sought For £250m Hydro Scheme At Glenmuckloch, the project now appears to be for sale.

Whether it will sell will depend on the cost of realising the scheme, the finance and how much the scheme will earn.

Conclusion

This project appears to have stalled, but I do like the idea of using a disused mine to store energy and the engineering behind the project.

March 1, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Energy, Energy Storage | Buccleuch Group, Coal Mines, Engineering, Glenmuckloch Pumped Hydro, Hydro-Electric Power, Mining, Pumped Storage Hydroelectricity, Scotland | 3 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.

Loch Awe, which is the sixth biggest freshwater loch in Scotland, is in the North-East corner.
Loch Fyne, which is the longest sea loch in Scotland, is in the South-West corner.
Loch Lomond, which is the second biggest freshwater loch in Scotland, is in the South-East corner.
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.

Loch Nant is in the Western side of the map.
Nant power station is marked by the red arrow.
The loch to the South of the power station is Loch Awe.
It appears that water can also go from Loch Nant to Inverawe power station to the North-East of the loch.
Inverawe power station is on Loch Awe, which curves round Loch Nant.
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 AnonW | Energy, Energy Storage | Cruachan Power Station, Drax Power Station, Engineering, Hydro-Electric Power, Loch Awe, Loch Lomond, Loch Nant, Loch Sloy, Loch Sloy Hydro-Electric Scheme, Loch Sloy Pumped Hydro, North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board, Pumped Storage Hydroelectricity, Scotland, Sloy/Awe Hydro-Electric Scheme | 1 Comment

Shin Hydro Power Scheme

The Shin 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 three individual power stations; Casseley, Lairg and Shin.
There are two dams

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.

Casseley – 10 MW
Lairg – 3.5 MW
Shin – 18.6 MW

This gives a total power of 32.1 MW.

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

Note.

Shin power station is in the South-West corner of the map.
Loch Shin is the large area of water in the top half of the map.
The village of Lairg is at the South end of Loch Shin.

This Google Map sows Shin power station in detail.

Note.

There is a large substation on the left side of the map.

Shin power station is the building straddling the water to the right of the substation.

I have found this informative press release on the SSE web site, which is entitled £5 m Investment In Shin Hydro Station.

These are a couple of paragraphs.

John McDonald, Hydro Manager for SSE said: “This is the first major overhaul of Shin Hydro Station in its 55-year history – a true testament to the reliability and longevity of hydro-electric power.

“There are few other industries that could claim to be making the same product with the same machines and same specifications as they were in the 1950s. This overhaul will mean that Shin will be producing clean, green electricity for decades to come.”

Surely, that is an argument for more hydro schemes.

This Google Map shows Lairg.

Note that there are two dams and a bridge across Loch Shin/River Shin.

This Google Map shows dam at the Southern end of the Loch.

This Google Map shows Lairg dam and power station at the Northern end of the village.

It would appear to be a much simpler scheme, than others I have examined.

Conclusion

I would be very surprised if any pumped storage were to be added to this scheme.

February 26, 2022 Posted by AnonW | Energy | Engineering, North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board, Pumped Storage Hydroelectricity, Scotland, Shin Hydro Power Scheme | 3 Comments

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