Plans for a £100 million mini hydro-electric power scheme in Snowdonia have taken a major step forward after securing £3 million in private funding.

Developer Snowdonia Pumped Hydro wants to transform the area around Glyn Rhonwy Quarry and the open hillside of Cefn Du, above Llanberis, into a major sustainable-energy scheme. It would create up to 300 jobs during the three-year construction period and 30 full-time jobs once operational.

Based on the same principle as Dinorwig’s Electric Mountain across the valley, water will be pumped uphill to a reservoir when electricity is cheap and then released to flow through a turbine to generate power.

The injection of funding will enable Snowdonia Pumped Hydro to strengthen its ‘delivery team’ for the 600MWh project and to design and carry out ground exploration works prior to negotiating with potential construction company partners.

The scheme received a further boost with the news that it is eligible to bid for a 15-year contract to supply grid-balancing services under the terms of the UK Government’s Electricity Market Reform Capacity Mechanism.

It would be the first pumped hydro scheme for 30 years in the UK. Ground investigations to prove the integrity of the slate geology under the site are expected to begin in the spring of 2015.