Associate Feature: Moving mountains to tackle climate change

The world’s most respected scientists agree that we need to cut carbon emissions to limit the rise in global temperatures. Agreeing on this is the easy part, cutting them is where the hard work really begins.

If we fail to reduce our emissions as set out in the Paris Climate Agreement the consequences will be deeply damaging for our world, and irreversible.

By aiming to slash its emissions by 68% from 1990 levels this decade - and reach Net Zero by 2050 - the UK has some of the world’s most ambitious targets. This will mean big changes to many areas of our lives, including how we source our electricity, how we heat our homes and even how we travel.

However, like a Rubik’s cube, once you think you are making progress on one side of the Net Zero puzzle, problems spring up elsewhere. 

We know we need a cleaner and greener power grid. But what happens when the sun doesn’t shine, or the wind doesn’t blow? What keeps our lights on then? 

But at the same time how do we also ensure we have an energy system which is secure, and one that businesses and households can rely on 24/7 and afford.

This is what is known as the ‘energy trilemma’: how can we create a power grid which is sustainable, secure, and affordable?

At Drax, we believe pumped storage hydro is a critical technology which is perfectly placed to help answer this question. 

Each year, the UK spends hundreds of millions of pounds turning off wind and solar farms when they are generating surplus power, or bottlenecks on the transmission system are preventing it from being transported to where it is needed. By harnessing the storage technology offered by pumped storage hydro, the grid can store excess green power and stop it from going to waste. 

That’s why Drax is progressing plans to build a new underground pumped storage hydro plant at its existing Cruachan facility in Argyll. 

The project recently received support from the Scottish Government through the Section 36 planning process, but to make it a reality a new support mechanism from the UK Government is also required.

A recent report by the trade body Scottish Renewables estimated that Drax’s project alone would generate almost £500 million for the UK economy, with a wider expansion of pumped storage hydro in Scotland creating almost 15,000 jobs.

The construction phase would create and support jobs from right across our economy, from engineering and transport, to boosting local hospitality and service sectors. Like the existing plant, the new power station will be built underground inside Argyll’s highest mountain. This will be done by creating a new hollowed-out cavern which would be large enough to fit the Big Ben tower on its side.

How does pumped storage hydro work?
These sites act like giant water batteries, using excess, cheaper power from the grid to pump water from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir where it is stored, before releasing back ‘downhill’ to generate electricity when demand requires. It acts much like a rechargeable battery, but on a massive scale.

This ability to absorb excess power from the grid helps to stop renewable electricity from going to waste. Through increasing the UK’s storage capacity, we can cut down on the growing problem of having to pay wind farms to turn off generation when demand is low, or transmission bottlenecks clog up the system. That’s good for consumers and the environment.
Pumped storage is not only efficient, but also highly flexible. These ingenious plants can quickly adjust to the demands of the grid to ensure electricity supply keeps up with demand.

Traditional power stations such as coal-fired plants can take many hours to generate electricity from a standing start. However, pumped storage plants can begin exporting power to homes and businesses in just a couple of minutes.

Unlike other potential storage technologies, we know that it works. Drax’s Cruachan power station has been balancing Britain’s power grid since before Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon.

Despite being plugged into the grid for more than half a century, Cruachan continues to play a critical role in keeping the UK’s lights on. As Britain becomes increasingly reliant on weather-dependent forms of energy, the flexibility of pumped storage has never been more important.

Unlocking investment
Despite the need for more storage, there are barriers standing in the way of private investment in such transformational projects such as expanding Cruachan. 

While the UK’s policy and market support mechanisms have evolved to enable new build renewables, the current framework isn’t suitable for pumped storage projects. That’s part of the reason why no new plants have been built in the UK since 1984. In contrast, new plants have been commissioned in recent years in Switzerland and Portugal, with work also underway on a new project in Australia. 

Meanwhile, China is implementing a huge expansion, with the country committing to build more than 200 new plants this decade. These new developments will have a combined generating capacity greater than Japan’s entire electricity grid.

A report by KPMG found that a ‘cap and floor’ incentive mechanism, like the regime used to stimulate investment in cross-border interconnectors, could overcome many of the hurdles currently blocking these new storage projects. This could secure billions of pounds of private investment into Scotland and create thousands of jobs in our communities.

Like the technology itself, this mechanism is tried and tested. It enables investors to see the project’s maximum and minimum revenues over an extended period, reducing risk and uncertainty.   

Under this type of scheme, operators would hand back revenues above the cap while support would only be given in the event revenues do not meet a minimum floor level, providing value for money for consumers. If this can be successfully used to incentivise the importation of electricity from abroad, surely it makes sense to use it to generate power here in the UK and create jobs for our communities.

Rising to the challenge
With the right support from the UK Government, Cruachan 2 can begin construction within the next couple of years and this would ultimately lead to significant investment into Scotland’s communities and our country’s energy security.

We need big, bold solutions to solve the energy trilemma. Drax is ready to move mountains to do so.

This article is sponsored by Drax

www.drax.com