With right support hydropower can play a bigger part in road to Net Zero
Hydropower could yet play a much bigger role in helping the UK achieve its emissions targets, says Prospect rep Dean Mannion, who works at Dinorwig, one of the world’s most acclaimed hydroelectric power stations.
In November 2020, the British government unveiled its 10 point plan for a green industrial revolution.
Point number one on its plan is the advancement of offshore wind; point two is the growth of low carbon hydrogen; and point 3 is delivering and building new build nuclear.
All of these are both critical and laudable but, sadly, there was no real mention in the plan about hydropower.
It would be a shame to dismiss, or to forget, hydropower as an important part of the UK’s renewables ‘toolkit’ to help us achieve Net Zero.
After all, hydro – using the flow of water to spin a wheel or drive turbine – is one of the very first sources of energy to be utilised by mankind. In ancient Greece, farmers used hydropower for laborious tasks such as grinding grain.
Electric Mountain
In the UK, and in more modern times, hydro has a storied history too.
I work as an assistant shift manager at Dinorwig power station, which is considered one of the finest examples of its kind in the world.
Fully commissioned in 1984, Dinorwig comprises 16km of underground tunnels and six generators inside Europe’s largest man-made cavern deep below the Elidir mountain.
Our ‘fuel’ is a large lake of water, which is pumped to the top of the mountain. Then when energy is needed, the water is allowed to flow back down through the turbines to create electricity.
Dinorwig’s rapid and reliable dynamic response, capable in theory of generating 1800MW in 10 seconds, makes it a crucial part of the electricity grid when demand is high.
We also have a nearby sister plant, Ffestiniog, which was the UK’s first major pumped storage power facility when it was commissioned in 1963.
Together, Dinorwig and Ffestiniog are known as the Electric Mountain, which is a tourist attraction in its own right in the heart of Snowdonia National Park, Wales.
Hydro in the UK
In 2020, renewable sources overtook fossil fuels as the UK’s largest provider of electricity. Hydro accounts for around 5% of the total renewables output and directly employs about 1,100 people in the UK.
On the face of it, these numbers alone don’t sound too impressive but surely the point is that with the right support and policies, there are gains to be had.
Last October, the Scottish government gave the green light for SSE to develop a pumped storage scheme at Coire Glas in the Scottish Highlands.
If the project goes ahead, it will be the UK’s first new pumped storage scheme for more than 30 years, and could double the UK’s pumped storage capacity.
A study carried out by Imperial College London on behalf of SSE Renewables, found that pumped hydro storage could save up to £690m per year on energy costs by 2050.
Just this month, engineers announced ambitious proposals to utilise gently sloping hills across the UK as ‘energy batteries’. This would, in effect, unlock hundreds of potential hydropower sites across the country.
The company behind the plans said these sites combined could create up to 7GW of energy storage.
There are also exciting developments in marine energy, such as tidal and wave power, on the horizon.
Although the government withdrew its support for the project In 2018, the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon development still hopes to become the world’s first such ‘power station’ to generate electricity from the daily rise and fall of the tides.
All these exciting projects show that hydro has an awful lot to offer, that there’s a lot more to come and could yet play an important role in helping the UK achieve Net Zero.
