---
title: "Britain Approves Its First New Pumped-Storage Hydro in Four Decades"
description: "UK regulator Ofgem provisionally backed 16 long-duration energy-storage projects, including the first new pumped-storage hydro 'water batteries' set to be built in Great Britain since the 1980s — a multibillion-pound bet on storing surplus wind and solar power."
category: "Economy"
category_url: https://boursel.com/category/economy
author: "Hannah Blackwood"
published: 2026-06-26T10:30:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-26T10:30:00.000Z
canonical: https://boursel.com/article/britain-approves-its-first-new-pumped-storage-hydro-in-four-decades
tags: ["energy-storage", "hydropower", "uk", "ofgem", "renewables"]
---
# Britain Approves Its First New Pumped-Storage Hydro in Four Decades

UK regulator Ofgem provisionally backed 16 long-duration energy-storage projects, including the first new pumped-storage hydro 'water batteries' set to be built in Great Britain since the 1980s — a multibillion-pound bet on storing surplus wind and solar power.

Britain hasn't built a big new "water battery" in 40 years. That's about to change.

## What was approved

Ofgem, the UK energy regulator, [published a provisional list](https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/ofgem-boosts-long-duration-storage-secure-more-homegrown-energy-customers) of **16 long-duration electricity storage (LDES) projects** it intends to support — among them several **pumped-storage hydro** schemes that would be the first of their kind built in Great Britain since the 1980s. The largest is SSE Renewables' **Coire Glas** (1.4 GW, 45+ GWh) on Loch Lochy in the Scottish Highlands, which the company says would roughly double the UK's existing electricity-storage capacity. Independent developer Gilkes Energy has two more on the list — **Earba** (1.8 GW, 40 GWh) and **Fearna** (2 GW). The decision is "minded-to" (provisional), with consultation running to August 7 and final terms due later this year.

## How pumped-storage works

A pumped-storage plant is a giant **water battery**. When power is cheap and plentiful — say, a windy night — it pumps water uphill from a lower reservoir to a higher one. When demand spikes, it lets the water fall back down through turbines to generate electricity on demand, within seconds. It's the most proven form of grid-scale storage, and unlike lithium-ion batteries (which typically discharge over two to four hours), pumped hydro can store energy for **tens of hours** and run for decades. The UK's handful of existing stations — Cruachan in Scotland, Dinorwig in Wales — were all built between the 1960s and 1984.

## Why the 40-year gap

The pause wasn't about geography but economics. A big scheme costs **billions of pounds**, takes years to build, and only pays off on the price gap between cheap and expensive power — a signal too uncertain to attract private capital on its own. Ofgem's new **"cap and floor"** mechanism fixes that: it guarantees developers a revenue floor (consumers top up if income falls short) while capping the upside (excess is returned to consumers). Modeled on the scheme used for power interconnectors, it de-risks these long-lived assets without outright subsidy or state ownership. Energy minister Michael Shanks said the country was "getting Britain building again" 40 years after its last such plant; Ofgem's Akshay Kaul called it a step toward "the long-duration energy storage we need in a clean power system."

## Why it matters

The push is tied to Britain's goal of a near-clean power system by 2030. As wind and solar grow, so does the need to store surplus output for windless, sunless stretches — exactly what long-duration storage provides, complementing the shorter-duration battery boom (UK battery capacity has rocketed from around 10 MW to nearly 7 GW in under a decade). The investment case is real but not yet sealed: SSE stressed it will only commit "in line with capital discipline" and its return thresholds, with "a significant number of points of detail" still to resolve. In other words, a provisional green light is a milestone, not a shovel in the ground — but after four decades, it's the clearest signal yet that Britain's water batteries are coming back. This is reporting on a regulatory decision and the documented plans, not investment advice.

## Sources

- [Ofgem boosts long-duration storage to secure more homegrown energy](https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/ofgem-boosts-long-duration-storage-secure-more-homegrown-energy-customers)
- [SSE statement on Ofgem's long-duration storage decision](https://www.sse.com/news-and-views/2026/06/sse-statement-on-ofgem-ldes-minded-to-decision-list/)