Development consent granted for 600MW underground pumped hydro plant in Scotland

By George Heynes
LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

Power generation company Drax Group has secured development consent for a 600MW underground pumped storage hydro (PSH) plant in Scotland, UK.

The project will be located at the aptly named ‘Hollow Mountain’ Cruachan Power Station in Argyll and include an expansion of the site to include the new £500 million (US$642.45 million) underground plant. This would bring the overall capacity of the site to over 1GW.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Recognising the potential of the project, which could be operational by 2030, the Scottish government formally approved the plans earlier this week. The expansion will also require an updated financial stabilisation mechanism from the UK government.

The new 600MW plant at Cruachan is part of a wider £7 billion strategic investment plan by Drax in clean energy technologies between 2024 and 2030.

Drax has highlighted that there is a lack of an existing government framework to support long-duration electricity storage and flexibility technologies. This means private investment cannot be secured for new pumped storage hydro projects, with no new plants having been built in the UK since Dinorwig in North Wales in 1984.

A final investment decision on the expansion of Cruachan remains dependent on the creation of such a framework.

This had been highlighted by Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf who called on the government during a tour of the Cruachan facility on 25 July to “provide an appropriate market mechanism” for projects like this.

To read the full version of this story visit Solar Power Portal.

Read Next

February 14, 2025
Energy storage developer and system integrator Energy Vault has been tapped by Victoria’s State Electricity Commission (SEC) to deliver a 100MW/200MWh government-owned battery energy storage system (BESS) in Australia.
February 13, 2025
Energy storage optimisation specialist Habitat Energy has signed an agreement with Octopus Energy US to optimise a 50MW/100MWh tolled battery energy storge system (BESS) in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market.
February 13, 2025
A roundup of recent BESS development planning consent news in the Great Britain (GB) market this week, from the pages of our sister site Solar Power Portal.
Premium
February 13, 2025
The Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (GSF) was one of the early movers in the UK BESS industry and now has operational assets in Great Britain (GB), Ireland, Germany, Texas and California.
February 13, 2025
Wind developer WestWind Energy has signed a lease agreement with Australia’s New South Wales government for the development of a 1,500MWh wind-plus-storage site in the south-west of the state.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter