Scotland home to 100 per cent of planned UK hydropower

All UK hydroelectric projects with planning permission are in Scotland, according to research by Scottish Renewables.

The group said a total of 27 projects with a combined capacity of 58.5MW have planning permission, with 14 schemes totalling 26.8MW under construction in the UK – all in Scotland.

The study comes after news earlier this month that two community-scale hydropower plants in the Scottish Highlands have secured nearly £5 million investment from the Green Investment Bank. 

Scottish Renewables policy officer Hannah Smith said: “Scotland’s terrain and rainfall mean the country is ideal for the development of hydroelectricity, but the rest of the UK has historically invested in this technology too.

“These figures show that a huge cut to the support in the UK government’s feed-in-tariff review in December (2015) has already caused a contraction in the number of schemes being developed and, it seems, a geographical withdrawal to hydro’s traditional heartland.”

“Developers are now looking to innovation to make projects financially viable,” she added.

According to the British Hydro Association, the UK – which has benefitted from hydropower for well over a century – currently has a total installed capacity of 1649MW, as well as around 2,788MW capacity of existing pumped storage.

But cuts to support under the Feed-in-tariff in 2015 have caused difficulties in financing hydro projects, and no projects in England, Wales or Northern Ireland currently have the green light to go ahead.