Plans to install a 300MW pumped storage hydro (PSH) scheme that will store renewable energy on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, has been announced.
The PSH scheme will store electricity, principally generated by windfarms on Lewis, to balance the intermittent electricity supply.
The scheme intends to use the sea as the lower reservoir to make it easier, cheaper and quicker to build.
“Although using the sea as the lower reservoir is new to the UK, the technology is proven in Asia”, said Nick Oppenheim of Eishken Limited.
“There are very few PSH schemes throughout the UK and what we are proposing is particularly innovative given the use of the sea as the lower reservoir.”
The scheme by Eisken Limited will double the efficiency of the Western Isles Link (WIL) to 80%. WIL is the cable being installed by the National Grid to transport renewable energy generated on the Scottish islands Stornoway, the Isle of Lewis and Beauly.
The proposed scheme will take between three to five-years to build, and once completed be capable of storing enough power for more than 200,000 homes.
AECOM, the international infrastructure design and engineering consultancy, is advising Eishken on the technical aspects of this project.
The first pumped hydro system to be introduced to the UK was Dinorwig Power Station. It was fully commissioned in 1984, and at the time regarded as one of the world’s most imaginative engineering and environmental project.
