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PUMPED HYDRO INNOVATION SPECIAL


Storing up solutions


Could hydro power projects be the answer to providing reliable support to renewable energy sources in the future?


By Stewart McRobert T


he vast majority of Scotland’s future energy needs will be met by renewables. That’s positive – but there’s a problem.


Wind and solar power have not been fully


exploited yet. We can’t guarantee when the sun will shine and the wind will blow. That means that sometimes we’ll have too much power for our needs and at other times we won’t have enough. We need back-up energy sources that kick in when nature isn’t cooperating. The people at Intelligent Land


Investments Group believe pumped storage hydro is one of the main


answers to this problem. And the good news is that as well as providing reliable support for Scotland’s renewables, it seems that an new projects will provide plenty of opportunities for electrical contractors.


y new projects will of opportunities for actors


Turbines and tunn d tunnels


Ross McLaughlin, the firm’lin, the firm’s technical adviser explainedhow this well-established sished system works. “Pumped s


involves two water bodies separated by height,” he said “They’re connected via els,


a series of tunnels some of which have


ater bodies ected via have


er,, explained how d storage hydro eight,” he said..


turbines, and the height difference is used to create power. When there’s excess power on the grid, you use that to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper. Then, when you need increased power on the grid, you release the water through turbines and generate electricity.”


100 years of power The company is so confident that this will play a vital part in Scotland’s future energy mix that it has applied to build three pumped hydro storage projects over the next 15 years. The first of these at Red John, Loch Ness, could receive planning permission later this year. Mark Wilson, the firm’s chief executive officer, said: “There are already two pumped storage projects in Scotland – one at Cruachan, Oban, which has been in place since the 1960s, and another at Foyers that has been on the go since 197 the go since 1974. “These s


“These systems have a lifetime of more than 100 years and they alrea


tems hav


lifetime of more than years and they already


provide 95% of the provide 95% of the world’s energy storage cap Industry experts


anticipate at least 5GW of pumped storage com


energy storage capacity.” Industry experts anticipate at least 5


e coming on


stream in the UK by 2030. The Red John projec offer 450MW


The Red John project will offer 450MW.


“Our pla 26 CABLEtalk FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020


Our planned three p


three projects Ross McLaughlin FINDING THE RIGHT SITE


A pumped storage hydro project is a major undertaking and finding the right location is essential for all sorts of reasons. Mark and his colleagues


worked with a global technical company to identify 150 potential sites for the three planned projects. He said: “We did not want to pursue any


will have a combined capacity of 2GW and they will be a major contribution to carbon reduction by offsetting 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year,” said Mark. What’s more, it’s expected that the


total investment required will be approximately £2.5 billion. “A lot of money will stay in the country for engineers, electrical contractors and so on,” added Mark. “We’ve calculated that Red John alone


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