camelot-forum.co.uk

Scotland's only other pumped storage scheme, operated by Drax Group, is housed within a giant artificial cavern inside Ben Cruachan on the shores of Loch Awe in Argyll. The North Yorkshire-based company plans to more than double the generating capacity of its facility, nicknamed Hollow Mountain, to more than 1GW, with the construction of a new underground power station.
But both Drax and SSE have been reluctant to press ahead without assurances from Whitehall.
"SSE needs clarity around how the UK government is going to support projects like Coire Glas," Mr McCutcheon explained.
"It was a key element of their energy security strategy last year, but we need to see how that's going to work in practice."
He added: "It doesn't require subsidy but they are enormous investments."
Specifically, SSE would like a commitment to a revenue stabilisation mechanism and more assurances about how the regulated energy market would reward low carbon power generation.

Prof Bell of Strathclyde University said answers were urgently needed by industry, pointing out that the Climate Change Committee, which advises the UK and devolved governments, had published a report this month asking ministers for greater clarity.

AE-NMidlands wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:47 pm The BBC radio report this morning emphasised that it still depends on how the government is going to rig the finances. The Beeb webpage report says

Scotland's only other pumped storage scheme, operated by Drax Group, is housed within a giant artificial cavern inside Ben Cruachan on the shores of Loch Awe in Argyll. The North Yorkshire-based company plans to more than double the generating capacity of its facility, nicknamed Hollow Mountain, to more than 1GW, with the construction of a new underground power station.
But both Drax and SSE have been reluctant to press ahead without assurances from Whitehall.
"SSE needs clarity around how the UK government is going to support projects like Coire Glas," Mr McCutcheon explained.
"It was a key element of their energy security strategy last year, but we need to see how that's going to work in practice."
He added: "It doesn't require subsidy but they are enormous investments."
Specifically, SSE would like a commitment to a revenue stabilisation mechanism and more assurances about how the regulated energy market would reward low carbon power generation.

Prof Bell of Strathclyde University said answers were urgently needed by industry, pointing out that the Climate Change Committee, which advises the UK and devolved governments, had published a report this month asking ministers for greater clarity.

There is at least 1 more biggie in Scotland and a small 1 in Wales - so all are in limbo because of our (climate) zombie government's inaction.

dan_b wrote: ↑Sat Mar 25, 2023 4:17 pm This is excellent news for sure - progress has been painfully slow but if it heralds the start of new investment in (pumped) hydro that's all good.

But both Drax and SSE have been reluctant to press ahead without assurances from Whitehall.
"SSE needs clarity around how the UK government is going to support projects like Coire Glas," Mr McCutcheon explained.

AE-NMidlands wrote: ↑Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:00 pm The only thing I can see which side-steps the problem is storage co-located with generation. Pumped storage is predominantly balanced in-out so paying grid fees in both directions makes it a non-starter.