The Coire Glas Project

Coire Glas is a proposed pumped hydro storage scheme with a potential capacity of up to 1500MW. It is the first large-scale pumped storage project to be developed in the UK for more than 40 years and would more than double Great Britain’s existing electricity storage capacity.

Pumped storage schemes involve two bodies of water at different heights. During periods of low demand and/or surplus generation, electricity is used to pump water from the lower loch to the upper reservoir, storing energy. The energy is released by using the water to generate hydro-electricity at a time when demand is high and/or other variable generation is low.

Coire Glas is an excellent pumped storage site with a large lower reservoir (Loch Lochy) and a significant elevation of more than 500m between the lower and the new upper reservoir site over a relatively short distance.

A revised application to increase the scheme’s proposed capacity from 600MW to 1500MW was approved by the Scottish Government in October 2020. This change will allow us to maximise the potential of the site as the UK moves towards a net zero carbon energy system by 2050.

Why Coire Glas?

Coire Glas, like all pumped hydro storage schemes, will be a major civil engineering construction project and has an estimated construction time of 5-6 years. A project of this scale has a high initial upfront construction cost but low operational costs and a very long operational life (50 years +). Of the project’s estimated cost of over £1.5 Billion, more than 70% is in the civil engineering structures. This investment therefore will be spent directly in the UK and the specifically in the Scottish Highlands with the associated job and other benefits that will bring.

Coire Glas will have a fast response time and a large storage capacity. This means that the scheme can provide the minute to minute, hour to hour energy balancing services to the grid but also sustain these services for long periods, up to days at a time if needed.

In the event of an unexpected failure elsewhere on the UK grid, Coire Glas can provide the necessary input of large amounts of energy to support the network.

Summary

Coire Glas once operational will bring a wide range of benefits and savings to the electricity system and UK consumer.

In the drive to a net zero carbon electricity system, the UK government has created mechanisms to de-risk other electricity infrastructure investments to drive forward the low carbon agenda such as Contracts for Difference for nuclear power, offshore wind, onshore wind, and cap and floor support for interconnectors. There is currently no mechanism to de-risk electricity storage investment.

We are working proactively with Government and regulatory bodies to explore opportunities for securing investment in Coire Glas and other long term storage to secure the benefits to UK consumers and society that they bring.

To access Coire Glas planning documents please click here.