Scottish Renewables and the British Hydropower Association have called on the UK Government to support long-duration electricity storage, including pumped storage hydro.
In a joint letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the trade bodies highlighted that by supporting investment in long-duration electricity storage, the UK Government can reduce consumer bills, CO2 emissions and the UK’s reliance on imported gas.
With many renewable technologies, such as offshore wind, having variable outputs, energy storage will be essential to ensure that low-cost power generated by renewables can be delivered to consumers when they need it most.
The Government’s current commitment is to deliver policy to enable investment in pumped storage hydro at some point in 2024.
However, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee recently recommended that this should be brought forward to 2023.
Scottish Renewables and the British Hydropower Association strongly support this recommendation.
Investment would reduce annual constraint costs, with potential savings of up to £680m per year by 2050.
Andrew MacNish Porter, Policy Manager at Scottish Renewables, said: “As we move towards a cleaner, greener future with more and more renewable power added to the electricity network we know that long-duration electricity storage, such as pumped storage hydro, will be essential for ensuring energy security and keeping bills low for consumers.
“A recent report which Scottish Renewables commissioned from BiGGAR Economics found that six projects currently under development in Scotland will more than double the UK’s pumped storage hydro capacity to 7.7GW, create almost 15,000 jobs and generate up to £5.8bn for the UK economy by 2035.
“We need to get these shovel-ready projects into construction right away and urge the Prime Minister and the UK Government to deliver an investment framework that will unlock the huge value of pumped storage hydro as soon as possible.”