Here's the missing piece in the renewables revolution

Scotland is leading the UK's renewable energy revolution, but without adequate storage, we risk wasting billions in clean power while consumers continue paying too much for electricity.

Scotland’s contribution to the UK’s clean energy future is remarkable. The UK recently passed the historic milestone of 30GW of total wind power capacity and Scotland alone delivers 48 per cent of this – with 9.5GW from onshore wind farms and 5GW from offshore installations dotted along the coastline. This achievement represents not just environmental progress, but a fundamental shift in how Britain generates its electricity.

But here's the challenge: unlike gas, we can’t turn wind up or down when we need it. Fortunately, that’s changing.

Richard Butland, CEO, Highview (Picture: Harley Bainbridge)

The AR7 catalyst

The Allocation Round 7 results announced in January, which secured a record 8.4GW of offshore wind capacity, mark another leap forward in Britain's journey towards clean power by 2030. This matters enormously – every additional wind turbine directly reduces our dependency on gas-fired generation and the volatile international prices that come with it.

The catch is that this only works if we can store and shift electricity to when it’s needed most. Without storage, we remain dependent on gas-fired power stations to fill in the gaps when the wind doesn’t blow, perpetuating the price volatility we’re trying to escape.

The distance problem

Scotland’s winds are among Europe’s strongest and most consistent; the electricity they generate faces a 400-mile journey to satisfy demand in London and Southeast England. This creates severe grid constraints – essentially, too much power trying to flow through transmission lines not built for this volume.

The consequences are costly and counterintuitive because Scottish wind farms are paid to switch off when there is excess wind. These “constraint payments” are passed to consumers through network charges on our bills and in 2025 alone, the cost was £1 billion. Without intervention, this figure is projected to balloon to between £5bn and £7bn per year by 2030.

How storage changes everything

Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) can fundamentally alter this trajectory. Unlike conventional batteries that discharge within hours, LDES technologies store clean electricity generated by Scottish wind farms for several hours to several weeks. When the grid needs that electricity, it’s released back to the system.

LDES has a special role in managing the peaks and troughs in electricity demand – similar to the part currently played by gas-fired power stations, but without the emissions or price volatility.

The Hunterston opportunity

Highview’s planned LDES facility at Hunterston PARC in Ayrshire will capture excess renewable energy when demand is low and store it as liquid air. When needed, the air is expanded to generate clean, dispatchable power 24/7, maximising renewable energy use whilst providing power during periods of low renewable generation. It will deliver clean electricity to power 650,000 homes for up to 12 hours, optimising Scotland’s onshore and offshore wind resources.

The closure of Hunterston B nuclear power station in 2022 has created an unexpected advantage. The site's substantial grid connection capacity – infrastructure built to handle a major power station – is now available for new projects. This means spare transmission capacity at Hunterston that storage projects can utilise, avoiding the worst constraint issues affecting developments further north in the Highlands and Islands.

The result is lower or no constraint payments and better transmission charging positions, making Hunterston an ideal location for releasing grid bottlenecks that currently prevent Scotland transmitting all the renewable electricity it generates.

Reducing gas’s influence on prices

Storage plays another crucial role in the economics of Scotland’s electricity system. The UK uses “marginal pricing”, with the most expensive generator needed to meet demand, becoming the benchmark for the price of all electricity. Gas plants typically fill this role because they can quickly balance supply and demand when renewables are intermittent.

When gas prices spike, electricity prices spike for everyone – even when most power comes from cheap renewables. The more renewables and storage on the system, the less often gas is needed, and the less frequently it sets prices. Wind already lowered wholesale power prices by around a third last year by squeezing out gas generation.

Building storage in key locations will reduce consumer bills long-term by limiting how often gas determines electricity prices.

The economic imperative

Government analysis demonstrates that 20GW of LDES capacity by 2050 could save £24bn between 2030 and 2050 by reducing gas reliance. To achieve this, LDES capacity must increase from just 1.8GW today to 4-6GW by 2030 – more than doubling in the next five years.

Scotland’s renewable energy revolution is real and accelerating. But without adequate long-duration storage, we face the absurdity of paying billions to waste clean energy and paying too much for electricity. Storage isn't just complementary to renewables – it’s essential to making them work economically and reliably.

Richard Butland, CEO, Highview