Loch Ness pumped storage hydro proposals prompt call from salmon fishery boarde for public inquiry
A salmon conservation body is calling for a public inquiry to look at the impact of proposed pump storage hydro schemes on Loch Ness.
The Ness District Salmon Fishery Board (Ness DSFB) says a new study indicates the proliferation of such projects could cause ecological disaster for the world’s most famous loch.
It issued its call for a public inquiry as Highland Council’s south planning applications committee will consider the planned Loch Kemp pump storage hydro (PSH) scheme near Whitebridge at its meeting on Wednesday (June 18).
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The 600MW Loch Kemp scheme, proposed by developer Statera, uses the existing Loch Kemp as the upper storage reservoir and Loch Ness as the lower reservoir.
Planning officers are recommending the council raise no objections to the scheme which will be decided ultimately by the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit.
But Brian Shaw, director of the Ness DSFB, said a newly-commissioned modelling study, carried out by experts, made sobering reading - and that the granting of permission for more PSH developments on Loch Ness, without a public inquiry, would be foolhardy and irresponsible.
“It exposes and underlines the fact that the hydro dynamic impacts of pump storage will be radical and likely irreversible,” Mr Shaw said.
“The schemes will be playing God with nature, destroying a fragile ecosystem that has evolved over millennia on Scotland’s most iconic loch.
“It is simply not fair, prior to an inquiry and a subsequent report, to expect lay persons on the Highland Council planning committee or indeed the energy consents unit to reach informed decisions on PSH utilising Loch Ness and on whether the benefits actually outweigh the massive environmental costs.”
Mr Shaw said pumping and discharging great volumes of water would result in constant changes in the level of Loch Ness, making it an inland tidal regime, damaging irreparably the shoreline ecology and playing havoc with natural currents within the loch.
He said it was likely that migrating salmon smolts would find it near impossible to find the exit point from Loch Ness within a reasonable timescale.
A podcast and link to the study, carried out by Dr Tom Scanlon and Dr Matt Stickland of MTS-CFD, can be found at NDSFB.org/pump-storage-hydro/.
Mr Shaw continued: “It is not necessary to cause irreparable damage the iconic Loch Ness in order to secure national energy security.
“Other locations in Scotland, already under consideration, appear to be far more suitable sites for this type of damaging development.
“Why are we considering consenting more harmful pump storage schemes when the majority of those with planning permission, such as the Cruachan Power Station Expansion in Argyll and Coire Glas in Lochaber, are currently not progressing?”
He said the Ness DSFB was not against pump storage hydro per se, but was adamant that the requirements for long duration energy storage could be delivered elsewhere, or by other means, where the risks to the environment, society and the Highland economy were much lower.
Statera Energy, initially unveiled its plans at public exhibitions more than three years ago and submitted a planning application in November 2023 after extensive survey work and consultation with the local community and statutory consultees.
As well as reducing carbon emissions and delivering greater energy security, its construction phase will give a £30 million boost to the Highland economy and £60 million to the Scottish economy.
The scheme would provide up to 25 high quality long-term jobs.
