First major hydropower projects in Great Britain in 40 years given go-ahead
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- Ofgem provisionally approved three pumped storage hydropower projects in northern Scotland, the first major new hydropower schemes in Great Britain since the Dinorwig plant in north Wales began operating in 1984
- The three projects are Statera Energy's Loch Kemp (drawing from Loch Ness), SSE's Coire Glas (drawing from Loch Lochy between Fort William and Inverness), and Gilkes Energy's Earba (using Loch Leamhain and Loch Earba) — the latter set to be the UK's largest pumped storage hydro facility
- All three Scottish projects are scheduled to be built by the early 2030s, using the region's lochs as natural reservoirs
- Energy minister Michael Shanks said the approval reflects the lesson from "the conflict in Iran": Britain "cannot afford to remain at the mercy of volatile fossil fuel markets and leave families exposed to the next price shock"
- The hydropower trio is part of Ofgem's 16 provisionally approved long-duration energy storage projects, most of which are lithium-ion battery schemes
- Non-battery projects on the list include TeesCAES's compressed air storage scheme in Tees — compressing air to about 70 bar — and Invinity Energy Systems' vanadium redox flow battery, which uses liquid electrolytes rather than solid cells
- The existing Dinorwig plant, known locally as "electric mountain," can generate enough electricity for nearly 2 million households in seconds via falling water driving its turbines
Why it matters: These are the first major grid-scale storage additions in Britain in four decades, directly aimed at balancing intermittent wind and solar output. The 16-project portfolio — 13 of them batteries but with compressed air and vanadium flow included — signals Ofgem is deliberately diversifying storage technologies, not just scaling lithium-ion, reducing single-technology risk on the road to a clean power system.
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