Hydro-electric energy could power every Scottish home by 2017

Published Date: 30 June 2009
By JOHN ROSS

SCOTLAND could have enough hydro power to supply every household in the country in less than a decade if two new schemes get the go ahead.
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) announced yesterday that it wants to develop the large-scale pumped storage hydro electric schemes in the Great Glen. Plans could be submitted by 2011 after consultations on the possible environmental impact and built by 2017.If approved, they would be the first pumped storage schemes to be developed in Britain since 1974. The announcement was made as the Queen officially opened the first large-scale conventional hydro electric station to be built in 50 years, at Glendoe, near Fort Augustus.SSE already owns and operates a 300MW pumped storage scheme at Foyers, on the south side of Loch Ness, which produces 300 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity to help meet peak demand. It is also to submit to Scottish ministers an application to develop a 60MW pumped storage scheme at its existing Sloy hydro station at Loch Lomond, allowing it to produce an additional 100GWh.The two Great Glen projects – the locations are not yet being revealed – would have an installed capacity of 300-600MW each and be able to produce more than 1,000GWh of electricity in a typical year.SSE chief executive Ian Marchant said: "Hydro has a long heritage but also has a long future. If we build these two schemes, the total hydro output in Scotland would be able to power every house in Scotland at the time of system peak."If we can pull these two off on the scale we think we may be able to, that would probably be enough for the next generation."He went on: "Hydro is a complementary source of power to wind – when the wind is not blowing, the hydro runs, and when the hydro is not running, the wind is there." Mr Marchant said new thinking was needed to meet ambitious targets set by the Scottish Government to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050."To meet the targets which Scotland has rightly set itself, we will require quite revolutionary thinking in every bit of the energy equation."That means we have to look at new technologies but also old technologies and see if we can exploit them better. "Scotland led the world in the coal era and led the world in offshore oil and gas industry. So we have led the world in putting carbon into the atmosphere and we are going to lo lead the world in taking carbon out."Johanna Yates, hydropower officer at Scottish Renewables, said pump storage hydro schemes were important for managing the supply of electricity at peak times. She said: "All kinds of hydropower are an important part of our energy mix and new developments will open up a new chapter for hydro power in the 21st century."Pumped storage schemes involve two bodies of water, located at different heights. During periods of low demand for power, electricity is used to pump water from the lower loch to the upper reservoir. This water is then released to create power when demand is high. At present, Scotland has a generation capacity of 3,010MW from renewable sources, including 1,383MW from hydro. This includes 100MW from the £150 million Glendoe scheme, where work began in February 2006, 2,000ft above Loch Ness in the Monadhliath mountains. Yesterday, the Queen flew to the site, which is now almost hidden other than the dam and reservoir in the hills.The scheme, capable of supplying a city the size of Glasgow, involves a dam 35m high and 905m long at the head of Glen Tarff, and a power station in a cavern 250m below ground level, inside Borlum Hill. It is fed from a reservoir more than a mile long and capable of holding eight million cubic metres of rainwater, collected from 60 square miles of surrounding hillside. A 5.3-mile tunnel collects water and takes it to the reservoir