Glendoe Hydro Scheme

The completion of several schemes by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board in the early 1960s brought to an end over two decades of expansion of conventional hydro-electricity in the Highlands of Scotland. Subsequently, Cruachan was commissioned in 1968, and Foyers in 1974, but both of these were pumped storage schemes. In 2001, the Scottish Parliament set an objective of increasing the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources to 18 per cent by 2010, as part of their Scottish Climate Change Programme. The publication of the Renewables Obligation in 2001 made any new hydro-electric scheme eligible under the incentive, whereas previously only those under 10 Megawatts…

A ceremony attended by Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and Jack McConnell, the First Minister of Scotland, marked the formal start of construction. They detonated an explosive charge, to begin the reshaping of the valley. A reservoir for the scheme was created by building a dam across the River Tarff. The dam is 3150 ft long, and some 115 ft high where it crosses the original course of the river, but much lower at the sides. It is a rock fill dam, with most of the rock coming from a quarry which was flooded as the reservoir filled with water. The upstream side is faced with concrete, while the downstream side is exposed rock. The dam cannot be seen from any of the houses and public…