Proactive Investors - Drax Group (LON:DRX) has been granted approval from the Scottish government to press ahead with plans to expand its Cruachan pumped storage power plant.
Set to cost £500mln, the new facility will be built into the hollowed-out Ben Cruachan mountain in Argyll, Scotland.
Some 600MW of energy will be available from the new facility, effectively doubling the capacity of the existing Cruachan power plant.
Drax boss Will Gardiner hailed the news as a “milestone,” with the new plant set to be Britain’s first pumped storage system built in a decade.
“With the right support from the UK Government, Drax will invest [around] £500mln to more than double Cruachan’s generating capacity,” Gardiner explained.
“These plants play a critical role in stabilising the electricity system, helping to balance supply and demand.”
Pumped hydro plants store energy by using excess energy to lift water upwards to a reservoir, with this then being released later to power a turbine and generate electricity.
Given the intermittence of solar and wind power, which rely on specific weather conditions, storage can offer flexibility to Britain’s energy system operator National Grid PLC (LON:NG.).
Drax’s new plant will support approximately 1,000 jobs, the company added, and could come online as early as 2030.
Drax shares climbed 0.6% to 617.4p.