Using mountains as ‘water batteries’ could cut UK’s nuclear power need

By Adam Vaughan

Turning more of the UK’s mountains into massive “water batteries” could substantially reduce the need for new nuclear power stations and save the country hundreds of millions of pounds, researchers have estimated.

New pumped hydro projects, which use off-peak electricity to pump water uphill and release it later to generate electricity, could save the UK energy system between £44 million and £690 million a year by 2050, according to a report by a team at Imperial College London. The exact figure hinges on how much of the storage technology is built …