The company has submitted an application to the Planning Inspectorate for development consent order to build the 99.9MW project at Glyn Rhonwy near Llanberis.
Snowdonia said that its scheme, which already has planning permission from local authority Gwynedd Council at an output of 49.9MW, would re-purpose two abandoned slate quarries.
With an anticipated operational life of around 125 years, the Glyn Rhonwy facility will create up to 30 full time local jobs, in addition to hundreds of jobs that will be created during construction phase.
Snowdonia, which was created by Quarry Battery Company (QBC) to take the Glyn Rhonwy scheme forward, recently entered an agreement to lease 13 hectares of land for the scheme from The Crown Estate.
The scheme was designed in consultation with AECOM, Gwynedd Council, Cadw, Countryside Council For Wales and Environment Agency Wales (now Natural Resources Wales).
When operational, the Glyn Rhonwy facility will tackle the intermittency of renewables such as wind by capturing surplus electricity and releasing it when demand is high and renewables output is low.
QBC recently submitted evidence to the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) showing how a new 10GW fleet of pumped hydro schemes built around the country would cut £3.5bn a year from the cost of decarbonising the grid, reduce carbon emissions by 5 million tonnes a year, and make the UK’s electricity supply more secure.
It identified suitable sites with low planning risk for some 15GW of new pumped hydro storage, during a nationwide geographical survey.
Image: Snowdonia Pumped Hydro seeks approval for 99.9MW pumped hydro electricity storage facility. Photo: courtesy of markuso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
