Quote Originally Posted by Old_pie View Post
Like Dinorwig you mean? Nearly 40yrs on and the only one in the UK. Someone (on another site) estimated that if the reservoir was the size of the whole of Wales it could possibly supply the UK with 6hrs of electricity. God only knows how long it would take to then replenish itself. Don't forget it also need a lower reservoir as well as the upper reservoir.

The Chinese seem to be building them at a fast rate but then they don't have to worry so much about planning permissions, space, mountains and the environmental impact.

Where would you build a very large scale unit in the UK? And what do you consider "large"?
Don't know about the UK. Where I live in Australia, the grid I'm on is connected with every east coast state and SA, stretching thousands of kilometers. A recent study done identified a mere 22,000 or so possible large scale pumped hydro storage sites. Perhaps the solution for the UK is connections to Europe and storage there if you can't find a single suitable site on your hilariously tiny island.