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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Severin Carrell Scotland editor

Balance of power: Loch Ness hydro storage schemes fuel local anxiety

Brian Shaw on the shore with loch behind him
Brian Shaw, an expert in freshwater salmon who runs the Ness District Salmon Fishery Board, fears for the fish. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Brian Shaw stood at the edge of Loch Ness and pointed to a band of glistening pebbles and damp sand skirting the shore. It seemed as if the tide had gone out.

Overnight, Foyers, a small pumped-storage power station, had recharged itself, drawing up millions of litres of water into a reservoir high up on a hill behind it, ready for release through its turbines to boost the UK’s electricity supply. That led to the surface of Loch Ness, the largest body of freshwater in the UK, falling by 14cm in a matter of hours.

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