Glinsk mountain, located just off the scenic North coast road, is judged to be ideal for a renewable energy storage reservoir because of its flat-topped location near the sea for the proposed pumped hydro-electric storage scheme (PHES), similar to that in Turlough Hill, Co Wicklow.
Added to the power of the waves would be huge wind farms in North Mayo generating at a minimum 1500MW.
The Glinsk PHES scheme would work as follows: The facility will accept power, primarily excess wind power, during off peak night time hours or when generation exceed demand and use it to pump sea water to a reservoir on the top of Glinsk Mountain.
The stored energy will be returned to the grid through turbines for use during peak times in the morning and evening, or generation emergencies, thus significantly reducing the national need for imported fossil fuels that are required to keep gas, coal, and oil fired power stations running.
The renewable energy storage reservoir would require a strategic electricity grid link between north Mayo and Pembroke, Wales, and Eirgrid has offered to conduct a pre-feasibility study on the link in advance of a connection offer, says Organic Power.
The 480MW plant could export provide 2 per cent of Britain’s electricity requirement by 2016, when the project is targeted for completion increasing to 10 per cent by 2025.
Mayo County Council which sees the county as a renewable energy hub for both wind, wave and biomass has has expressed support in principle for the concept.
The PHES technology, proven since the 1920s as a method of storing off-peak electricity for peak demand, works by moving water between reservoirs at different elevations. In this instance the sea would provide the lower reservoir, with sea water being pumped up a cliff face to a reservoir on the mountain.
A similar sea water PHES has been functioning successfully in a national park in Okinawa, Japan, developed by Japanese company J Power, says Mr McCarthy.
The company has been in pre-planning discussions with An Bord Pleanála in a bid to submit the project as strategic infrastructure. The board has taken a preliminary view that it qualifies as a strategic infrastructural development application, but has not yet issued a determination on this.
Mayo has the highest available wind resource in Britain and Ireland, and the best wave-energy potential on the Atlantic seaboard, according to a Marine Institute study.
The State’s ocean energy test site is off Belmullet, and applications by Coillte and Bord na Móna could generate up to 2,000MW of wind energy in the county.
The proposed high-voltage underground DC transmission cable would involve a 500MW tap link to the State’s grid at Dublin, and would cost an estimate €1.4 billion to construct.
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