A north ski resort is hoping a new hydro scheme will help to safeguard the future of the business which employs more than 100 people in the winter.
Nevis Range, near Fort William in Lochaber, has been granted planning permission for a 1.1MW scheme on the Allt Choille-Rais burn to the east of the top gondola station.
The waterway is on the north-eastern flank of the Aonach an Nid, which is a subsidiary ridge of Aonach Mor, and the development falls within the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area – a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.
Highland Council received no objections to the proposal and officers granted the application under delegated powers.
However, the consent is subject to a number of conditions, including a requirement that Nevis Range introduce a species protection plan for otter, bats and pine marten.
The resort’s managing director Marian Austin said the scheme would generate renewable electricity for the resort with any excess exported to the national grid.
She said: “It is in our interest to reduce the impacts of climate change and creating our own green energy is a great way to do that.
“It is no secret that it is often wet and windy here, affecting our business adversely, and the hydro scheme would generate plenty of electricity on those days, which will help to compensate for lack of other income.”
Ms Austin said the development would help to safeguard the business, which employs more than 50 people full-time and 100 in the winter.
She said: “One of the company’s biggest single costs is electricity and by producing power, which it can utilise, then selling the excess, the company is tied into the energy market, helping protect it from the fluctuations which will inevitably come in the future.
“The gondola and ski lifts mostly use electricity and snowmaking is a developing technology, but it is energy-hungry.
“If the company is to develop a snowmaking capacity, the contribution from the hydro scheme will help compensate for the high costs.”