Scotland is at the forefront of a new energy storage revolution led by hydropower but some communities have raised concerns over the potential cost of net zero progress.

Sometimes the dimensions of £1 billion hydro plants have raised concerns, while safety issues around other energy storage forms such as lithium battery parks have also been voiced.

There is also a further concern around the ethical sourcing of materials such as lithium, highlighted by Friends of the Earth Scotland.

However, proponents of the new technologies insist they are safe, and that where there have been community concerns, they have worked to address those issues.

Campaigners who have opposed one lithium battery park proposed by York-based Apatura, Save Our Countryside – Cochno Road, near Clydebank pointed to fire risk concerns, saying: “Lithium-ion batteries can overheat, leading to fires or explosions. These incidents can be difficult to control and may release toxic fumes, posing a risk to nearby residents.”

Apatura said that “each battery container will have a fire detection and suppression system and would be continually monitored by a battery management system, which would report any faults”.

Energy storage is seen as important enough for the UK Government to announce this week that it is to underwrite the risk of long-duration energy storage sites such as hydro facilities.

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Mark Wilson, chief executive of Intelligent Land Investments, which is helping spearhead the new hydro revolution, told The Herald: “We need roughly 60 gigawatts of energy storage to balance the grid to get us all to net zero. The stats that I’ve seen, we are looking at anywhere between 10 and 20 gigawatts of pumped storage, but other people may correct me, that’s my understanding, and the rest is going to be a combination of lithium battery, probably some green hydrogen and probably some compressed air and flow batteries, and other technologies as they are proven, but they would be the main candidates that we would see.

“We do a lot of community meetings, so before we put a site into planning we will do a community meeting to explain it all to people.”

He continued: “The backlash on batteries, there has been a bit of press about it, and some people think it is potentially a hazard but it is the exact same battery that is in your mobile phone.

“To do a 50 megawatt battery project it would cost about £20 million. So the cooling systems in there and safety systems are in there to keep that technology safe. From a business point of view, it is second to none.”

He said: “It is not something they should be scared of, it is something they should be embracing, it is going to get us to net zero, it is going to be good for country, get us off gas and bring our energy bills down, it is only positive.

“We are a green energy company, and we believe a very ethical energy company, and we wouldn’t be doing it if we thought it was wrong."

Communication is key

ILI sold the consented plans for Red John, now called Loch na Cathrach, to Norwegian giant Statkraft, and Mr Wilson added that the scale of the projects is also a boost for communities.

He said: “We bring the community along with us and the key is communication. If we’ve got a single person that has got a concern we will go out and see them.

“When we were doing Red John, there were concerns about the upper headpond, the height of that. We changed the whole physicality of it to address the concerns of the local people.

“People recognised Red John was going to cost £800 million to a £1 billion to build, £600m of that is going to be injected into the community. There will be 450 direct workers building that project, we anticipated.”

Iain Robertson, head of Statkraft Scotland, also said interacting with the community is important: “Statkraft has a good neighbour ethos, and within weeks of acquiring the project almost a year ago we were meeting face to face with community representatives and organising exhibitions to introduce ourselves.

“One of the first things we did on acquiring the scheme was to hold an extremely well-attended event at the Inverness Townhouse, where it was made clear that we want to see our investment stay in the regional economy. Construction possibilities were highlighted, resulting in discussions with suppliers and other stakeholders which we hope to talk more about soon.”