From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Doug Brodie
From the Telegraph:
A giant net zero hydropower station is to be built on Loch Ness under Ed Miliband’s plans to shore up Britain’s energy security.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, said it was minded to approve three new net zero projects on Scotland’s lochs to help provide backup power at times when wind or solar generation falters.
The Scottish schemes will see surplus electricity from wind farms used to pump water from lowland lakes into others further uphill. Water would then be released and naturally run downhill, spinning turbines and generating power at times of need in the process.
The Loch Ness scheme is promoted by Statera, a subsidiary of Swedish investment giant EQT Infrastructure.
It would use Loch Kemp, in the hills above Loch Ness, as the upper reservoir, with a dam built to expand its capacity. Underground pipes would connect it to Loch Ness.
The Loch Ness scheme would see so much water shunted up and down the surrounding hills that levels could rise and fall by 2ft to 3ft a day. Critics say this would wreck its ecology.
Brian Shaw, the chief executive of the Ness District Salmon Fishery Board, said: “It’s absolutely crazy to have a world-renowned, iconic lake like Loch Ness subject to these harmful schemes. It will turn it into a tidal lake, damaging the shoreline ecology with the plumes of turbulent water from the pipes, damaging the water quality.”
Full story here.
Once again we see the trashing of the environment for no benefit at all.
This Lock Kemp scheme will store about 5 GWh, which will only be enough to keep the grid running for about 5 minutes. It’s half the size of Dinorwig, which plays a role in helping to meet demand at peak times.
Neither these two, nor the other pumped storage projects planned for the Scottish Islands will be of any use during a two-week Dunkelflaute.
The cost of Loch Kemp is around £1 billion, which the public will end up paying for one way or another. On top of that is the cost of constructing an underground cable to the existing Foyers Switching Station 5 miles away, creating more environmental damage.
None of these pumped storage sites would be needed if we did not have the proliferation of intermittent wind power.
This must be one of the most egregious acts of vandalism since the building of the Aswan Dam on the Nile.
Pumped storage is NOT a generator (the clue is in the name ‘storage’); it’s an energy retrieval system
Pumped storage is inefficient, just like a battery … but it’s safer with no toxic chemicals, no fire risk, & has a longer life.
The only downside is Geography.
Festiniog & Dinorwig pumped-storage units were built in the 1960/70s as a balancing system for Wylfa nuclear power station & the Rio Tinto aluminium smelter at Holyhead (closed 2013).