ENERGY and property group Intelligent Land Investments (ILI) has secured £1.6 million funding to support work on three water-powered electricity projects in Scotland.
Lanarkshire-based ILI will use the money to help it progress plans for a pumped hydro storage generator on the shores of Loch Ness.
It is developing proposals for other facilities on sites in the Highland and Argyll and Bute.
Read more: Shell plans North Sea developments as it aims to boost green credentials
Pumped hydro storage schemes can generate electricity by allowing water to move between reservoirs.
ILI applied for planning permission for the Loch Ness scheme, called Red John, in February.
The company said yesterday it has worked with local interest groups and addressed their concerns on heritage issues.
Chief executive Mark Wilson said pumped storage hydro schemes could play an important role in supporting the roll out of other renewable energy facilities.
Read more: Energy giant mulls hefty investment in Scottish hydro power plant
Energy from PSH schemes can be stored for usage when output from other sources falls below requirements.
“Our projects alone could help offset 2 million tonnes of CO2 a year, helping ensure we can meet our climate promises for net zero,” said Mr Wilson.
ILI secured the funding from investors through the Abundance crowdfunding platform in less than three weeks. It said investors were offered a fixed annual return of 10 per cent for three years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here