Storage

[AE-NMidlands]

Just found this:
https://www.ili-energy.com/news-media "Scottish loch at heart of energy storage facility to help nation move away from fossil fuels"

A wee loch in Argyll is at the heart of a proposed new energy storage facility that will help guarantee continuous power from renewable sources such as wind farms as the country moves away from fossil fuels."
Project Balliemeanoch will see Lochan Airigh turned into a headpond containing 58 million cubic metres of water that will feed a hydro pumped storage scheme near Loch Awe at Dalmally.

The system will use green electricity to pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir at times when more energy is being supplied to the network than is needed...
The new project is the largest of three pumped hydro projects by Hamilton-based developer Intelligent Land Investments (ILI), which is behind the consented Red John scheme at Loch Ness and the planned Corrievarkie at Loch Ericht.

If it goes ahead, Balliemeanoch will be able to supply 1.5 gigawatts of power for up to 30 hours – enough for 4.5 million homes.

Do we need a storage category for these threads, or just keep putting the topic into Media?

[Joeboy]

I had a quick look at the company and all I could see at the moment is 'fluff'. I'm not a fan of slick phrasing presented as things we are nearly almost doing. I hope to be corrected on this as I like the idea of a Loch being a renewable energy store.
https://www.ili-energy.com/

BTW, energy storage is a sub directory of the PV section. Cheers!

[CrofterMannie]

There is a segment of the industry that makes their money by planning renewable projects, getting all the permissions and then selling the project into someone else to actually do. ILI send to be one of these companies so don't expect them to actually construct anything. (RES does the same with wind farms).

ILIs Red John project is basically ready to go, SSE were consulting on the grid connection route last month but I've not heard any word of it actually starting - I guess because they haven't managed to sell it to anyone yet.

[Joeboy]

Thanks Croftermannie, a huge project indeed. I would think at that size it would be govt led? Not an easy path to financial return? Would be great to see SSE run with it.

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest ... 0-06-2021/

Thanks for the explanation on ILI's role.

[AE-NMidlands]

Thanks Joeboy for the tip, I'll try to remember that!

I note

“There is currently a pipeline of over 5GW of pumped storage in the UK but we need to work closely with the UK Government to implement the market mechanisms that are needed to drive investment into these projects to ensure we hit our net zero targets”.

and wonder whether that is referring to the problem of having to pay to use the grid in both directions? If so (with our reliance on "the market," i.e. the City) I doubt we shall ever see anything like the progress we need.

[Joeboy]

Thanks Joeboy for the tip, I'll try to remember that!

I note

“There is currently a pipeline of over 5GW of pumped storage in the UK but we need to work closely with the UK Government to implement the market mechanisms that are needed to drive investment into these projects to ensure we hit our net zero targets”.

and wonder whether that is referring to the problem of having to pay to use the grid in both directions? If so (with our reliance on "the market," i.e. the City) I doubt we shall ever see anything like the progress we need.

I had to look too!

[CrofterMannie]

I have wondered about the proposed PHS at Loch Kemp (although it seems to still just be an idea rather than something that is progressing), it is very, very close to about 0.5GW of wind turbines and only a couple of km from 100MW of hydro. For the cost of a few thousand meters of cable they could bypass the grid and run the wind farms and PHS as a single unit avoiding some of the transmission charges. That could make the economics look a bit better.

[Tinbum]

Thanks Croftermannie, a huge project indeed. I would think at that size it would be govt led? Not an easy path to financial return? Would be great to see SSE run with it.

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest ... 0-06-2021/

Thanks for the explanation on ILI's role.

I bought into that project/investment through Abundance.

[Joeboy]

Thanks Croftermannie, a huge project indeed. I would think at that size it would be govt led? Not an easy path to financial return? Would be great to see SSE run with it.

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest ... 0-06-2021/

Thanks for the explanation on ILI's role.

I bought into that project/investment through Abundance.

Interested in how long ago that was?

[Tinbum]

Interested in how long ago that was?

Jan 2018, Abundance had some interesting Investments at that time, the ones at the moment are not quite for me.

https://www.abundanceinvestment.com/invest-now

Note usual disclaimer- invest at your own risk- you may lose money.